AVERAGE 

AMERICANS 

THEODORX 
ROOSEVELT 


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AVERAGE  AMERICANS 


BY 

THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

LIEUTENANT-COLONEL.  U.  S.  A. 


Lieutenant  Colonel  Theodore  Roosevelt 
From  a  photograph  by  L^vey-Dhiirmer 

ILLUSTRATED 


G.  P.  PUTNAM'S  SONS 

NEW  YORK  AND  LONDON 

Ube  ftntcfter&octer  press 

1919 


:A.  <.' 


AVERAGE  AMERICANS 


BY 

THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

LIEUTENANT-COLONEL,  U.  S.  A. 


ILLUSTRATED 


>      »    .  >    » 


G.  P.  PUTNAM'S  SONS 

NEW  YORK  AND  LONDON 

Ubc  Ikntcfterbocfter  press 

1919 


A 

-^\.^ 


Copyright,  1919 

BY 

THEODORE   ROOSEVELT 


• .  ••- •    • 


cP 


THE  OFFICERS  AND  MEN 
OF  THE  26TB  INFANTRY 


PREFACE 

A  LL  our  lives  my  father  treated  his  sons 
and  daughters  as  companions.  When 
we  were  not  with  him  he  wrote  to  us  constantly. 
Everything  that  we  did  we  discussed  with 
him  whenever  it  was  possible.  All  his 
cnildren  tried  to  live  up  to  his  principles. 
In  the  paragraphs  from  his  letters  below,  he 
speajcs  often  of  the  citizens  of  this  country 
as  ''our  people.'*  It  is  for  all  these,  equally 
with  us,  that  the  messages  are  intended. 

"New  Year's  greetings  to  you!  This  may 
or  may  not  be,  on  the  whole,  a  happy  New 
Year — almost  certainly  it  will  be  in  part  at 
least  a  New  Year  of  sorrow — but  at  least  you 
and  your  brothers  will  be  upborne  by  the  self  - 
reliant  pride  coming  from  having  played 
well  and  manfully  a  man's  part  when  the 
great  crisis  came,  the  great  crisis  that  'sifted 


vi  Preface 

out  men's  souls*   and   winnowed   the   chaff 
from  the  grain." — January  /,  iqi8. 

*' Large  masses  of  people  still  vaguely  feel 
that  somehow  I  can  say  something  which  will 
avoid  all  criticism  of  the  government  and  yet 
make  the  government  instantly  remedy  every- 
thing that  is  wrong ;  whereas  in  reality  nothing 
now  counts  except  the  actual  doing  of  the 
work  and  that  I  am  allowed  to  have  no  part 
in.  Generals  Wood  and  Crowder  have  been 
denied  the  chance  to  render  service ;  appoint- 
ments are  made  primarily  on  grounds  of  sen- 
iority, which  in  war  time  is  much  like  choos- 
ing Poets  Laureate  on  the  same  groimds.'* — 
August  2j,  IQ17. 

''At  last,  after  seven  months,  we  are,  like 
Mr.  Snodgrass,  'going  to  begin.*  The  Na- 
tional Guard  regiments  are  just  beginning  to 
start  for  their  camps,  and  within  the  next 
two  weeks  I  should  say  that  most  of  them 
would  have  started;  and  by  the  first  of  Sep- 
tember I  believe  that  the  first  of  the  National 


Preface  vii 

Army  will  begin  to  assemble  in  their  camps. 
.  .  .  I  do  nothing.  ^Now  and  then,  when  I 
can't  help  myself,  I  speak,  for  it  is  necessary 
to  offset  in  some  measure  the  talk  of  the  fools, 
traitors,  pro-Germans,  and  pacifists;  but  really 
what  we  need  against  these  is  action,  and  that 
only  the  government  can  take.  Words  count 
for  but  little  when  the  'dnmmiing  guns'  have 
been  waked.'* — August  23,  1917, 

^'The  regular  officers  are  fine  fellows,  but 
for  any  serious  work  we  should  eliminate 
two  thirds  of  the  older  men  and  a  quarter  of 
the  younger  men,  and  use  the  remainder  as  a 
nucleus  for,  say,  three  times  their  nimiber  of 
civilian  officers.  Except  with  a  comparatively 
small  number,  too  long  a  stay  in  our  army — 
with  its  peculiar  limitations — produces  a  rigid- 
ity of  mind  that  refuses  to  face  the  actual 
conditions  of  modem  warfare.  But  the  won- 
der is  that  our  army  and  navy  have  been 
able  to  survive  in  any  shape  after  five 
years  of  Baker  and  Daniels." — September  17, 
1917. 


viii  Preface 

'*  Along  many  lines  of  preparation  the  work 
here  is  now  going  fairly  fast — not  much  of  a 
eulogy  when  we  are  in  the  ninth  month  of  the 
war.  But  there  cannot  be  much  speed  when 
military  efficiency  is  subordinated  to  selfish  per- 
sonal politics,  the  gratification  of  malice,  and 
sheer  wooden-headed  folly." — October  14, 1Q17, 

''The  socialist  vote  [in  the  New  York 
mayoralty  election]  was  rather  ominous. 
Still,  on  the  whole,  it  was  only  about  one  fifth 
of  the  total  vote.  It  included  the  extreme 
pacifist  crowd,  as  well  as  the  vicious  red-flag 
men,  and  masses  of  poor,  ignorant  people 
who,  for  example,  would  say.  'He'll  give  us 
five-cent  milk, '  which  he  could  have  given  as 
readily  as  he  could  have  given  the  moon.*' — 
November  7,  Jrp/7. 

"Well,  it's  dreadful  to  have  those  we  love 
go  to  the  front;  but  it  is  even  worse  when 
they  are  not  allowed  to  go  to  the  front." — 
Letter  to  Mrs,  Theodore  Roosevelt,  Jr.,  November 
II,  IQ17. 


Preface  ix 

"Yesterday  mother  and  I  motored  down 
to  the  draft  camp  at  Yaphank.  First,  I  was 
immensely  pleased  with  the  type  of  the  men, 
and  the  officers  are  just  as  good  as  the  average 
of  young  West  Pointers.  I  believe  that  in 
the  end  that  army  there  will  be  as  fine  a 
body  of  fighting  men  as  any  nation  in  the  world 
could  desire  to  see  under  its  banners.  But 
there  is  still,  after  nearly  three  months  that 
they  have  been  called  out,  some  shortage  in 
warm  clothes;  there  are  modem  rifles  for 
only  one  man  in  six;  there  are  only  about 
four  guns  to  an  artillery  brigade.** — November 
19,  IQ17, 

"Of  course,  the  root  of  our  trouble  lies  in 
our  government's  attitude  during  the  two  and 
one  half  years  preceding  our  entry  into  the 
war,  and  its  refusal  now  to  make  the  matter 
one  in  which  all  good  citizens  can  join  without 
regard  to  party,  and  paying  heed  only  to  the 
larger  interests  of  the  country  and  of  man- 
kind at  large.  ...  I  now  strike  hands  with 
any  one  who  is  sound  on  Americanism  and  on 


X  Preface 

speeding  up  the  war  and  putting  it  through 
to  the  finish;  but  we  ought  to  take  heed  of 
our  industrial  and  social  matters  too." — 
Thanksgiving  Day,  1917^ 

"There  is  little  I  can  do  here,  except  to  try 
to  speed  up  the  war;  the  failure  to  begin  work 
on  the  cargo  ships  with  the  utmost  energy- 
ten  months  ago  was  a  grave  misfortune." — 
December  2j,  iQi^. 

**The  work  of  preparation  here  goes  on 
slowly.  I  do  my  best  to  speed  it  up;  but  I 
can  only  talk  or  write;  and  it  is  only  the  doers 
who  really  count.  The  trouble  is  fundamen- 
tal and  twofold.  The  administration  has  no 
conception  of  war  needs  or  what  war  means; 
and  the  American  army  has  been  so  handled 
in  time  of  peace  that  the  bulk  of  the  men  high 
up  were  sure  to  break  down  in  the  event  of 
war." — January  6,  IQ18. 

''Over  here  Senator  Chamberlain's  com- 
mittee has  forced  some  real  improvements  in 
the  work   of  the  war   department   and  the 


Preface 


XI 


shipping  board.  It  is  of  course  a  wicked 
thing  that  a  year  was  wasted  in  delay  and  in- 
efficiency. Substantially  we  are,  as  regards 
the  war,  repeating  what  was  done  in  1 8 12-15; 
there  was  then  a  complete  breakdown  in 
the  governmental  work  due  to  the  pacifist 
theories  which  had  previously  obtained,  to  in- 
efficiency in  the  public  servants  at  Washing- 
ton, and  above  all  to  the  absolute  failure  to 
prepare  in  advance.  Yet  there  was  much 
individual  energy,  resourcefulness,  and  cour- 
age; much  work  by  good  shipwrights;  fine 
fighting  of  an  individual  and  non-coherent 
kind  by  ship  captains  and  by  occasional 
generals." — March  10,  IQ18, 

*'How  I  hate  making  speeches  at  such  time 
as  this,  with  you  boys  all  at  the  front!  And 
I  am  not  sure  they  do  much  good.  But  some- 
one has  to  try  to  get  things  hurried  up." — 
March  14,  IQ18, 

"Wood  testified  fearlessly  before  the  Senate 
committee,  and  the  country  has  been  impressed 


xii  Preface 

and  shocked  by  his  telUng  (what  of  course  all 
well  informed  people  already  knew)  that  we 
had  none  of  our  own  airplanes  or  field  guns 
and  very  few  of  our  own  machine  guns  at 
the  front." — March  ji,  iqi8, 

*'The  great  German  drive  has  partially 
awakened  our  people  to  the  knowledge  that 
we  really  are  in  a  war.  They  still  tend  to 
complacency  about  the  'enormous  work  that 
has  been  accomplished* — in  building  home 
camps  and  the  like — ^but  there  really  is  an 
effort  being  made  to  hurry  troops  over,  and 
tardily,  to  hasten  the  building  of  ships,  guns, 
and  airplanes. 

"My  own  unimportant  activities  are,  of 
course,  steadily  directed  toward  endeavor- 
ing to  speed  up  the  war,  by  heartily  backing 
everything  that  is  done  zealously  and  effi- 
ciently, and  by  calling  sharp  attention  to  luke- 
warmness  and  inefficiency  when  they  become 
so  marked  as  to  be  dangerous." — April  7,  igi8, 

**0f  course,  we  are  gravely  concerned  over 
the  way  the  British  have  been  pushed  back; 


Preface  xiii 

and  our  people  are  really  concerned  over  the 
fact  that  after  over  a  year  of  formal  participa- 
tion in  the  war  our  army  overseas  is  too  small 
to  be  of  great  use.*' — April  14,  igi8. 

"The  administration  never  moves  unless 
it  is  forced  by  public  pressure  and  public  pres- 
sure can  as  a  rule  only  be  obtained  by  showing 
the  public  that  we  have  failed  in  doing  some- 
thing we  should  do;  for  as  long  as  the  public 
is  fatuously  content,  the  administration  lies 
back  and  does  nothing.** — April  20 ^  igi8. 

"The  people  who  wish  me  to  write  for  them 
are  divided  between  the  desire  to  have  me 
speak  out  boldly,  and  the  desire  to  have  me 
say  nothing  that  will  offend  anybody — and 
cannot  realize  that  the  two  desires  are  incom- 
patible.*'— April  28,  IQ18. 

"I  spoke  at  Springfield  to  audiences  whose 
enthusiastic  reception  of  warlike  doctrine 
showed  the  steady  progress  of  our  people  in 
imderstanding  what  the  war  means.** — May  5, 
IQ18, 


xiv  Preface 

"It  is  well  to  have  had  happiness,  to  have 
achieved  the  great  ends  of  life,  when  one 
must  walk  boldly  and  warily  close  to  death/' 
— May  12,  1Q18, 

*'We  are  really  sending  over  large  numbers 
of  men  now,  and  the  shipbuilding  program  is 
being  rushed;  but  the  situation  as  regards 
field  guns,  machine  guns,  and  airplanes  con- 
tinues very  bad.  The  administration  never 
takes  a  step  in  advance  until  literally  flailed 
into  it;  and  the  entire  cuckoo  population  of 
the  'don't  criticize  the  President'  type  play 
into  the  hands  of  the  pro-Germans,  pacifists, 
and  Hearst  people,  so  that  a  premium  is  put 
on  our  delay  and  inefficiency." — May  12,  igi8. 

/*The  only  way  I  can  help  in  speeding  up 
the  war  is  by  jarring  loose  our  governmental 
and  popular  conceit  and  complacency.  I 
point  out  our  shortcomings  with  unsparing 
directness  and  lash  the  boasting  and  the 
grandiloquent  prophecies. 

-''The  trouble  is  that  our  people  are  ignorant 


Preface  xv 

of  the  situation  and  that  most  of  the  leaders 
fear  to  tell  the  truth  about  conditions.  I 
only  wish  I  carried  more  weight.  Yet  I 
think  our  people  are  hardening  in  their  deter- 
mination to  win  the  war,  and  are  beginning 
to  ask  for  results/' — May  2j,  igi8. 

**The  war  temper  of  the  country  is  steadily 
hardening  and  so  is  the  feeling  against  all 
the  pro-German  agitators  at  home." — June  2, 
1918, 

*'  In  every  speech  I  devote  a  little  time  to  the 
*  cut  out  the  boasting  plea. '  Of  course  I  really 
do  think  that  in  spite  of  our  governmental 
shortcomings  we  are  developing  our  strength.'' 
— June  26,  igi8, 

'*0n  the  Fourth  of  July  I  went  down  to 
Passaic,  where  three  quarters  of  the  people 
are  of  foreign  parentage,  the  mayor  himself 
being  of  German  ancestry.  I  talked  straight- 
out  Americanism,  of  course,  which  was  most 
enthusiastically  received;  the  mayor's  two 
sons  have  enlisted  in  the  navy,  and  one  has 


xvi  Preface 

been  promoted  to  being  ensign.  The  war 
spirit  of  the  people  is  steadily  rising." — July 
7,  1Q18, 

*'I,  of  course,  absolutely  agree  with  you  as 
to  the  tremendous  difficulties  and  possible 
far-reaching  changes  we  shall  have  to  face 
after  this  war.  Either  fool  bourbonism  or  fool 
radicalism  may  land  us  unpleasantly  near — 
say  halfway  toward — the  position  in  which 
Russia  has  been  landed  by  the  alternation 
between  Romanoffism  and  Bolshevism." — 
July  15,  igi8, 

''It  is  very  bitter  to  me  that  all  of  you,  the 
young,  should  be  facing  death  while  I  sit  in 
ease  and  safety." — July  21,  IQ18. 

*'I  keep  pegging  away  in  the  effort  to  hurry 
forward  our  work.  We  now  have  enough 
troops  in  France  to  make  us  a  ponderable 
element  in  the  situation." — August  4,  igi8, 

''On  Labor  Day  I  spoke  at  Newbiirgh  ship- 
yard and  spoke  plainly  of  the  labor  slackers 


Preface  xvii 

and  the  unions  that  encourage  them;  and  on 
Lafayette  Day,  at  the  City  Hall,  I  spoke  of 
the  kind  of  peace  we  ought  to  have,  and  nailed 
to  the  mast  the  flag  of  Nationalism  as  against 
Internationalism." — September  p,  IQ18, 

'*  The  Germans  have  been  given  a  staggering 
blow,  and  while  I  hope  for  peace  by  Xmas,  I 
believe  we  should  speed  everything  to  the 
limit  on  the  assumption  that  next  year  will 
be  the  crucial  year/' — October  20,  IQ18, 

*' During  the  last  week  Wilson  has  been 
adroitly  endeavoring  to  get  the  Allies  into 
the  stage  of  note  writing  and  peace  discussion 
with  an  only  partially  beaten  and  entirely  un- 
conquered  Germany.  I  have  been  backing 
up  the  men  like  Lodge  who  have  given  utter- 
ance to  the  undoubtedly  strong,  but  not  neces- 
sarily steady,  American  demand  for  uncondi- 
tional surrender.  It  is  dreadful  to  have  my 
sons  face  danger;  but  unless  we  put  this  war 
through,  their  sons  may  have  to  face  worse  danger 
— and  their  daughters  also.  * ' — October  27,  IQ18. 

Oyster  Bay,  August,  1919, 


CONTENTS 


Preface 


CHAPTER 

I. — Boyhood  Recollections    . 

II. — Sins  of  the  Fathers 

III. — Overseas 

IV. — Training  in  France 

V. — Life  in  an  Army  Area     . 
VI. — Early  Days  in  the  Trenches  . 
VII. — Montdidier       .... 

VIII. — Soissons 

IX. — St.  Mihiel  and  the  Argonne  . 

X. — The  Last  Battle 

XI. — Up  the  Moselle  and  into  Conquered 
Germany        .... 

XII. — Afterwards       .... 


PAGB 
V 

I 

21 

33 
48 
66 
82 
120 
162 

183 
201 

217 
234 


SIX 


ILLUSTRATIONS 

PAGB 

Lieutenant  Colonel  Theodore  Roosevelt 

From  a  portrait  by  L^vey-Dhurmer 

Frontispiece 

Colonel  Roosevelt  in  America  to  Lieu- 
tenant Colonel  Roosevelt  in  France  .   20 

A  Group  of  Officers  of  the  ist  Battalion, 

26th  Infantry 24 

Haudivillers,  April,  19 17 

Brigadier  General  Frank  A.  Parker,  Lieu- 
tenant Colonel  Theodore  Roosevelt, 
AND  Mrs.  Roosevelt  at  Romagne    .         .      38 

*'Chow" 58 

Drawn  by  Captain  W.  J.  Aylward,  A.  E.  F.,  1918 

Before  the  Offensive         ....       78 

Drawn  by  Captain  W.  J.  Aylward,  A.  E.  F. 

The  Signal  Corps  at  Work        ...      86 

Drawn  by  Captain  Harry  E.  Townsend,  A.  E.  F. 

A  Trench  Raid 130 

Drawn  by  Captain  George  Harding,  A.  E.  F.,  Montfaucon 
xxi 


xxii  Illustrations 


An  Air  Raid 172 

Drawn  by  Captain  George  Harding,  A.  E.  F.  August,  19 18 

The  Rhine  at  Coblenz        ....     226 
Drawn  by  Captain  Ernest  Peixotto,  A.  E.  P. 

Three  Theodore  Roosevelts      .         .         .     240 

Copyright,  Walter  S.  Shinn 


AVERAGE  AMERICANS 


Average  Americans 


CHAPTER  I 

BOYHOOD   RECOLLECTIONS 

"*Tis  education  forms  the  common  mind, — 
Just  as  the  twig  is  bent,  the  tree's  inclined." 

Alexander  Pope. 

CROM  the  time  when  we  were  very  Httle 
boys  we  were  always  interested  in  miH- 
tary  preparedness.  My  father  believed  very 
strongly  in  the  necessity  of  each  boy  being 
able  and  willing  not  only  to  look  out  for  him- 
self but  to  look  out  for  those  near  and  dear 
to  him.  This  gospel  was  preached  to  us  all 
from  the  time  we  were  very,  very  small.  A 
story,  told  in  the  family  of  an  incident  which 
happened  long  before  I  can  remember,  illus- 
trated this.  Father  told  me  one  day  always 
to  be  willing  to  fight  anyone  who  insulted 


*       r    c        c       «  c  1 

^'•«^  .'•'';  y]  {';'•  Average  Americans 

me.  Shortly  after  this  wails  of  grief  arose 
from  the  nursery.  Mother  ran  upstairs  and 
found  my  little  brother  Kermit  howling  in  a 
comer.  When  she  demanded  an  explanation 
I  told  her  that  he  had  insulted  me  by  taking 
away  some  of  my  blocks,  so  I  had  hit  him  on 
the  head  with  a  mechanical  rabbit. 

Our  little  boy  fights  were  discussed  in  de- 
tail with  father.  Although  he  insisted  on 
the  willingness  to  fight,  he  was  the  first  to 
object  to  and  punish  anything  that  resem- 
bled bullying.  We  always  told  him  every- 
thing, as  we  knew  he  would  give  us  a  real 
and  sympathetic  interest. 

Funny  incidents  of  these  early  combats 
stick  in  my  mind.  One  day  one  of  my 
brothers  came  home  from  school  very  proud. 
He  said  he  had  had  a  fight  with  a  boy.  When 
asked  how  the  fight  resulted  he  said  he  had 
won  by  kicking  the  boy  in  the  windpipe. 
Further  investigation  developed  the  fact  that 
the  windpipe  was  the  pit  of  the  stomach.  My 
brother  felt  that  it  must  be  the  windpipe, 
because  when  you  kicked  someone  there  he 


Boyhood  Recollections  3 

lost  his  breath.  I  can  remember  father  to 
this  day  explaining  that  no  matter  how  effec- 
tive this  method  of  attack  was  it  was  not  con- 
sidered sportsmanlike  to  kick. 

Father  and  mother  believed  in  robust 
righteousness.  In  the  stories  and  poems 
that  they  read  us  they  always  bore  this  in 
mind.  Pilgrim's  Progress  and  The  Battle 
Hymn  of  the  Republic  we  knew  when  we  were 
very  young.  When  father  was  dressing  for 
dinner  he  used  to  teach  us  poetry.  I  can 
remember  memorizing  all  the  most  stirring 
parts  of  Longfellow's  Saga  of  King  Olaf, 
Sheridan's  Ride,  and  the  Sinking  of  the  Cum- 
berland. The  gallant  incidents  in  history- 
were  told  us  in  such  a  way  that  we  never 
forgot  them.  In  Washington,  when  father 
was  civil  service  commissioner,  I  often  walked 
to  the  office  with  him.  On  the  way  down  he 
would  talk  history  to  me — not  the  dry  history 
of  dates  and  charters,  but  the  history  where 
you  yourself  in  your  imagination  could  as- 
sume the  r61e  of  the  principal  actors,  as  every 
well-constructed  boy  wishes  to  do  when  in- 


4  Average  Americans 

terested.  During  every  battle  we  would 
stop  and  father  would  draw  out  the  full  plan 
in  the  dust  in  the  gutter  with  the  tip  of  his 
umbrella. 

When  very  little  we  saw  a  great  many  men 
serving  in  both  the  army  and  navy.  My 
father  did  not  wish  us  to  enter  either  of  these 
services,  because  he  felt  that  there  was  so 
much  to  be  done  from  a  civilian  standpoint 
in  this  country.  However,  we  were  taught 
to  regard  the  services,  as  the  quaint  phrase- 
ology of  the  Court  Martial  Manual  puts  it, 
as  the  ** honorable  profession  of  arms.''  We 
were  constantly  listening  to  discussions  on 
military  matters,  and  there  was  always  at 
least  one  service  rifle  in  the  house. 

We  spent  our  summers  at  Oyster  Bay. 
There,  in  addition  to  our  family,  were  three 
other  families  of  little  Roosevelts.  We  were 
all  taught  out-of-door  life.  We  spent  our 
days  riding  and  shooting,  wandering  through 
the  woods,  and  playing  out-of-door  games. 
Underlying  all  this  was  father's  desire  to  have 
all  of  us  children  grow  up  manly  and  clean- 


Boyhood  Recollections  5 

minded,  with  not  only  the  desire  but  the  ability 
to  play  our  part  at  the  country's  need. 

Father  himself  was  our  companion  when- 
ever he  could  get  away  from  his  work.  Many 
times  he  camped  out  with  us  on  Lloyd's  Neck, 
the  only  "grown-up"  of  the  party.  We  al- 
ways regarded  him  as  a  great  asset  at  times 
like  these.  He  could  think  up  more  delight- 
ful things  to  do  than  we  could  in  a  ''month  of 
Sundays."  In  the  evening,  when  the  bacon 
that  sizzled  in  the  frying-pan  had  been  eaten, 
we  gathered  round  the  fire.  The  wind  soughed 
through  the  marsh  grass,  the  waves  rippled 
against  the  shore,  and  father  told  us  stories. 
Of  the  children  who  composed  these  picnics, 
two  died  in  service  in  this  war,  two  were 
wounded,  and  all  but  one  volunteered,  regard- 
less of  age,  at  the  outbreak  of  hostilities. 

When  we  were  all  still  little  tadpoles, 
father  went  to  the  war  with  Spain.  We  were 
too  little,  of  course,  to  appreciate  anything 
except  the  glamour.  When  he  decided  to  go, 
almost  all  his  friends  and  advisers  told  him 
he  was  making  a  mistake.     Indeed,  I  think  my 


6  Average  Americans 

mother  was  the  only  one  who  felt  he  was 
doing  right.  In  talking  it  over  afterward, 
when  I  had  grown  much  older,  father  ex- 
plained to  me  that  in  preaching  self-defense 
and  willingness  to  fight  for  a  proper  cause,  he 
could  not  be  effective  if  he  refused  to  go  when 
the  opportunity  came,  and  urged  that  *'it 
was  different''  in  his  case.  He  often  said, 
*'Ted,  I  would  much  rather  explain  why  I 
went  to  the  war  than  why  I  did  not." 

At  school  and  at  college  father  encouraged 
us  to  take  part  in  the  games  and  sports.  None 
of  us  were  really  good  athletes — father  him- 
self was  not — but  we  all  put  into  it  all  we  had. 
He  was  just  as  much  interested  in  hearing 
what  we  had  done  on  the  second  football  team 
or  class  crew  as  if  we  had  been  varsity  stars. 

He  always  preached  to  us  one  maxim  in 
particular:  take  all  legitimate  chances  in  your 
favor  when  going  into  a  contest.  He  used 
to  enforce  this  by  telling  us  of  a  man  with 
whom  he  had  once  been  hunting.  The  man 
was  naturally  a  better  walker  than  father. 
Father  selected  his  shoes  with  great  care. 


Boyhood  Recollections  7 

The  man  did  not.  After  the  first  few  days 
father  was  always  able  to  outwalk  and  out- 
hunt  him  just  on  this  account.  Father  always 
went  over  his  equipment  with  the  greatest 
care  before  going  on  a  trip,  and  this  sort  of 
thoroughness  was  imbued  in  all  his  sons. 

Long  before  the  European  war  had  broken 
over  the  world,  father  would  discuss  with  us 
military  training  and  the  necessity  for  every 
man  being  able  to  take  his  part. 

I  can  remember  him  saying  to  me,  '*Ted, 
every  man  should  defend  his  country.  It 
should  not  be  a  matter  of  choice,  it  should 
be  a  matter  of  law.  Taxes  are  levied  by  law. 
They  are  not  optional.  It  is  not  permitted 
for  a  man  to  say  that  it  is  against  his  religious 
beliefs  to  pay  taxes,  or  that  he  feels  that  it  is 
an  abrogation  of  his  own  personal  freedom. 
The  blood  tax  is  more  important  than  the 
dollar  tax.  It  should  not  therefore  be  a 
voluntary  contribution,  but  should  be  levied 
on  all  alike." 

Father  was  much  interested  in  General 
Wood's  camps  for  the  training  of  the  younger 


8  Average  Americans 

boys  and  was  heartily  in  sympathy  with  them. 
Both  Archie  and  Quentin  attended  them. 
Quentin  had  a  badly  strained  back  at  the 
time,  but  that  did  not  keep  hini  from  going. 

At  the  sinking  of  the  Lusitania  a  very  keen 
realization  of  the  gravity  of  the  situation  was 
evident  all  over  the  country.  A  number  of 
younger  men  between  the  ages  of  twenty-one 
and  thirty-five  met  together  to  talk  things 
over.  In  this  group  were  Grenville  Clarke, 
Philip  A.  Carroll,  Elihu  Root,  Jr.,  Cornelius 
W.  Wickersham,  J.  Lloyd  Derby,  Kenneth 
P.  Budd,  and  Delancy  K.  Jay.  They  felt 
that  it  was  only  a  question  of  time  until  we 
would  be  called  to  the  colors,  and  realized 
most  keenly  the  fact  that  it  is  one  thing  to  be 
willing  and  quite  another  to  be  able  to  take 
your  part.  They  felt,  as  this  war  has  shown, 
the  lamentable  injustice  and  grievous  loss 
that  is  entailed  by  putting  against  men  who 
are  trained  in  the  business  of  fighting  un- 
trained men  who,  no  matter  how  good  their 
spirit  and  how  great  their  courage,  do  not 
know  the  game. 


Boyhood  Recollections  9 

The  outcome  of  the  conference  of  these  men 
was  the  decision  to  ask  General  Wood  if  it 
would  be  possible  for  him  to  hold  a  training 
camp,  for  men  up  to  forty-five  years,  similar  to 
those  held  for  boys.  With  the  usual  patriot- 
ism that  characterizes  him,  General  Wood 
said  at  once  that  he  would  hold  the  camp  even 
if  they  were  able  to  get  only  twenty-five  men 
to  attend.  In  the  beginning,  converts  came 
slowly,  but  after  a  campaign  of  personal  solici- 
tation, in  which  members  of  the  original  group 
went  individually  to  various  cities  in  the  vicin- 
ity of  New  York,  the  movement  got  under 
way  with  such  success  that  the  first  so-called 
** Business  Men's  Plattsburg  Camp"  num- 
bered about  one  thousand,  and  was  immedi- 
ately followed  by  another  nearly  as  large. 

At  this  time  the  average  man  did  not  know 
what  military  training  and  service  meant. 
The  camp  was  composed  of  men  of  all  types 
and  all  ages.  Many  of  them,  too  old  for  active 
service,  had  come  as  an  earnest  of  their  belief 
and  through  the  desire  to  teach  by  their  ac- 
tions as  well  as  by  their  preachings.     Robert 


10  Average  Americans 

Bacon  and  John  Purroy  Mitchel  attended  this 
camp,  both  of  them  men  whose  memory  will 
always  be  treasured  by  those  who  were  for- 
tunate enough  to  know  them. 

We  took  it  all  very  seriously.  At  one  end 
of  the  company  street  you  would  see  two 
prominent  middle-aged  business  men  trying 
to  do  the  manual  of  arms  properly,  rain  drip- 
ping off  them,  their  faces  set  like  the  day  of 
judgment,  crowned  with  grizzled  hair.  At 
the  other  would  be  Arthur  Woods,  the  Police 
Commissioner  of  New  York,  ** boning**  the 
infantry  drill  regulations.  George  Wharton 
Pepper  was  promoted  to  sergeant,  and  was  as 
proud  of  it  as  of  any  of  his  achievements  in 
civil  life.  Bishop  Perry  of  Rhode  Island  was 
named  as  color  sergeant. 

Men  who  went  to  this  Plattsburg  camp 
had  to  pay  their  own  money  in  order  to  try 
to  fit  themselves  to  serve  their  country.  No 
more  undemocratic  arrangement  could  have 
been  made  for  it  placed  beyond  the  power  of 
the  men  of  small  means,  who  form  the  body  of 
the  country,  to  get  in  advance  the  knowledge 


Boyhood  Recollections  n 

necessary  to  act  as  an  officer.  Yet  this  was 
the  only  course  open  to  us.  In  the  ensuing 
year  these  camps  spread  over  the  country,  and 
through  them  passed  many  thousands  of  men. 
Far  over  and  above  their  value  from  the  stand- 
point of  military  training  was  their  educational 
value  in  national  duty.  A  large  percentage 
of  the  commissioned  officers  on  our  country's 
roll  of  honor  attended  the  Plattsburg  camps. 
These  camps  in  themselves  furnished  the 
nucleus  for  the  selection  of  the  commissioned 
personnel  of  the  national  army,  and  furnished, 
furthermore,  the  system  by  which  the  great 
mass  of  our  junior  officers  were  chosen  and 
educated.  Yet  the  movement  was  launched, 
not  with  the  backing  and  help  of  the  national 
administration,  but  rather  in  spite  of  the 
national  administration.  No  official  repre- 
senting the  administration  visited  these  early 
camps.  Solely  by  private  endeavor,  there- 
fore, arose  the  system  of  selection  of  officers 
which  enabled  the  army  in  this  war,  more 
than  any  army  this  country  has  had  in  the 
past,  to  choose  the  men  for  commissions  with 


12  Average  Americans 

a  keen  regard  for  their  ability,  with  a  truer 
democracy  and  less  of  political  influence.  On 
account  of  this  movement  the  town  of  Platts- 
burg  is  known  from  one  coast  to  the  other. 

During  this  first  camp  my  father  came  up 
to  address  the  men.  Up  to  this  time,  although 
he  had  spoken  on  universal  military  training, 
it  had  been  considered  as  such  an  unthinkable 
program  that  no  one  had  paid  any  attention. 
Two  or  three  times  people  have  asked  me 
when  my  father  first  became  convinced  of 
the  necessity  for  universal  training  and  serv- 
ice in  this  nation.  They  have  always  been 
greatly  surprised  when  I  have  referred  them 
back  to  a  message  to  Congress  written  during 
his  first  term  as  President,  in  which  he  suggested 
that  the  Swiss  system  of  training  would  be  an 
advisable  one  to  adopt  in  the  United  States. 
Many  years  before  this  he  had  directed  N. 
Carey  Sawyer  to  investigate  and  report  on 
Switzerland's  military  policy.  So  little  were 
people  concerned  with  it  at  that  time  that 
no  comment  of  any  sort  was  caused  by  either 
act. 


Boyhood  Recollections  13 

The  evening  of  my  father's  arrival  at  Platts- 
burg  an  orderiy  came  and  directed  me  to 
report  at  headquarters,  where  my  father  was 
sitting  in  conference. 

''Ted,  I  have  decided  to  make  a  speech 
to-morrow  in  favor  of  universal  service," 
father  said  to  me.  ''My  good  friends  here, 
who  believe  in  it  as  much  as  I  do,  feel  that 
the  time  is  not  ripe,  that  the  country  would 
not  understand  it,  and  that  it  will  merely  pro- 
voke a  storm  of  adverse  criticism.  I  have  told 
them  that  although  the  country  may  criti- 
cize, and  although  unquestionably  a  storm  of 
attacks  will  be  directed  against  me,  it  must 
be  done,  because  the  country  must  begin 
thinking  on  the  subject." 

He  spoke  next  day  before  the  assembled 
students.  The  ring  of  serious  khaki-clad  men 
seated  on  the  parade  ground,  father  speaking 
very  earnestly  in  the  center,  speaking  until 
after  dark,  when  he  had  to  finish  by  a  lantern, 
is  a  clear  picture  to  me. 

To  many  of  them  this  exposition  was  the 
first  they  had  ever  heard  on  the  subject. 


14  Average  Americans 

Most  of  them  up  to  this  time  had  not  been 
interested  in  it,  and  had  felt  vaguely  that  com- 
pulsory military  training  and  service  was 
synonymous  with  the  German  system  and 
was  not  democratic.  When  France  and  Swit- 
zerland were  brought  to  their  attention  as 
democracies,  as  efficient  democracies;  and  as 
countries  which  had  a  thoroughly  developed 
system  of  universal  military  training,  their 
eyes  were  opened  and  they  saw  the  matter  in 
a  new  light.  From  this  camp,  directed  in  a 
large  part  by  my  father's  and  General  Wood's 
inspiration  and  ideas,  grew  a  nation-wide 
group  of  young  men  who  felt  the  seriousness 
of  the  situation,  young  men  who  realized  we 
must  take  our  part  and  who  wished,  as  one 
of  my  private  soldiers  put  it  to  me,  "At  least 
to  have  a  show  for  their  white  alley"  when 
the  war  broke. 

During  the  ensuing  winter  and  summer  in 
many  parts  of  the  country  enthusiasts  were 
working,  and  many  more  camps  were  founded 
and  carried  to  a  successful  completion.  Rec- 
ognition of  a  mild  sort  was  obtained  from 


Boyhood  Recollections  15 

the  National  Government.  Not  recognition 
which  permitted  men  to  go  as  men  should  go 
in  a  democracy,  to  learn  to  serve  their  country, 
as  pupils  of  the  country,  at  the  country's 
expense,  but  at  least  as  men  doing  something 
which  was  not  unrecognized  and  frowned  on 
by  their  government. 

Toward  the  winter  of  191 7  father  talked 
ever  increasingly  to  all  of  us  concerning  his 
chance  of  being  permitted  to  take  a  division 
or  unit  of  some  sort  to  Europe.  When  war 
was  declared  he  took  this  matter  up  directly 
with  the  President.  What  happened  is  now 
history.  He  took  his  disappointment  as  he 
took  many  other  disappointments  in  his  life. 
Often  after  he  had  worked  with  all  that  was 
in  him  for  something,  when  all  that  could  be 
done  was  done,  he  would  say,  *' We  have  done 
all  we  can;  the  result  is  now  on  the  knees  of 
the  gods.*' 

Meanwhile  he  was  constantly  interested 
in  and  constantly  talked  with  all  of  us  about 
what  we  were  doing.  At  last,  two  months 
after  we  severed  diplomatic  relations,  training 


1 6  Average  Americans 

camps  for  officers  were  called  into  being  with 
enormous  waste  and  inefficiency,  and  we  am- 
bled slowly  toward  the  training  of  an  army 
and  its  commanding  personnel. 

All  of  us  except  my  brother  Quentin  left 
for  Plattsburg.  Quentin,  on  the  day  before 
diplomatic  relations  were  severed,  had  tele- 
phoned from  college  to  father  to  say  he  would 
go  into  the  air  service,  where  his  real  ability 
as  a  mechanician  stood  him  in  good  stead.  Of 
the  other  three,  Kermit  had  had  the  least 
training  from  a  purely  military  standpoint^ 
having  been  in  South  America  during  most 
of  the  time  when  we  had  been  working  on 
the  ''Plattsburg movement.*'  His  ability  and 
experience,  however,  in  other  ways  were 
greater,  as  in  his  hunting  trips  in  Africa  and 
South  America  he  had  handled  bodies  of  men 
in  dangerous  situations.  Archie  had  attended 
practically  all  the  camps,  and  was  naturally  a 
fine  leader  of  men  and  a  boy  of  great  daring. 

At  Plattsburg,  Archie  and  I  were  fortunate 
enough  to  be  put  in  the  same  company.  Dur- 
ing the  major  part  of  the  month  we  were  there 


Boyhood  Recollections  17 

we  were  in  charge  of  the  company.  Our  duty 
was  to  instruct  potential  officers  in  the  art  of 
war  which  we  ourselves  did  not  know.  We 
spent  hours  wig-wagging  and  semaphoring. 
Neither  of  these  methods  of  signaling  did  I 
ever  see  used  in  action. 

In  our  ''conference'*  periods  the  floor  was 
opened  for  questions.  The  conversation 
would  be  something  like  this:  ''What  is  light 
artillery?''  "Light  artillery  is  the  lighter 
branch  of  the  artillery." — "That  is  all  very 
well,  but  define  it  further."  Deep  thought. 
"It  is  the  artillery  carried  by  men  and  not 
by  horses."  One  man  asked  in  all  solemnity 
once,"  Does  blood  rust  steel  more  than  water? " 
It  is  not  necessary  to  add  that  he  never  became 
an  officer. 

We  worked  like  nailers,  but  were  always 
watching  for  the  word  that  troops  were  to  be 
sent  across.  To  all  of  us,  from  the  beginning, 
it  was  not  a  question  of  deciding  whether  we 
should  go  or  not.  We  had  been  brought  up 
with  the  idea  that,  deplorable  as  war  was,  the 
only  way  when  it  broke  was  to  go.     The  only 


i8  Average  Americans 

way  to  keep  peace,  a  righteous  peace,  was  to 
be  prepared  and  willing  to  fight.  A  splendid 
example  of  a  fine  family  record  is  given  by 
Governor  Manning's  family,  of  South  Caro- 
lina: seven  sons,  all  in  service,  and  one  paying 
the  supreme  sacrifice. 

'*If  we  had  a  trained  army  like  the  Swiss, 
Germany  would  never  dare  commit  any  of- 
fenses against  us,  and,  furthermore,  I  believe 
it  highly  possible  that  the  entire  war  might 
have  been  avoided,"  was  a  statement  often 
made  to  me  by  father  at  the  beginning  of 
the  war. 

At  the  end  of  the  first  three  weeks  we  heard 
rumors  that  a  small  expeditionary  force  was 
to  be  sent  over  immediately.  We  telephoned 
father  at  Oyster  Bay  and  asked  him  if  he  could 
help  us  get  attached  to  this  expeditionary  force. 
He  said  he  would  try,  and  succeeded  in  so  far 
as  Archie  and  I  were  concerned,  as  we  already 
had  commissions  in  the  officers'  reserve  corps. 
We  offered  to  go  in  the  ranks,  but  General 
Pershing  said  we  would  be  of  more  value  in 
the  grades  for  which  we  held  commissions. 


Boyhood  Recollections  19 

Our  excitement  was  intense  when  one  day  in 
an  official  envelope  from  Washington  we  re- 
ceived a  communication,  ''Subject — Foreign 
Service/'  The  communication  was  headed 
''Confidential,"  so  we  were  forced  to  keep  all 
our  jubilation  to  ourselves.  Some  ten  days 
after  we  received  another  commimication, 
"Subject — Orders,"  and  were  directed  to  re- 
port to  the  commanding  general,  port  of 
embarkation.  New  York,  "confidentially  by 
wire,"  at  what  date  we  would  be  ready  to 
start. 

We  both  felt  this  was  not  the  most  expedi- 
tious way  to  proceed,  but  we  obeyed  orders 
and  telegraphed.  We  supplemented  this,  how- 
ever, by  taking  the  next  train  and  report- 
ing in  person  at  the  same  time  the  telegram 
arrived,  in  case  they  could  not  decode  our 
message.  General  Franklin  Bell  was  the  com- 
manding general,  and  he  very  kindly  helped 
us  get  ofif  at  once,  and  we  left  on  the  Hner 
Chicago  for  Bordeaux  on  June  i8th. 

Our  last  few  days  in  this  country  we  spent 
with  the  family.    Archie  and  I  went  with  our 


20  Average  Americans 

wives  to  Oyster  Bay,  where  father,  mother, 
and  Quentin  were.  My  wife  even  then  an- 
nounced her  intention  of  going  to  Europe  in 
some  auxiliary  branch,  but  she  promised  me 
she  would  not  start  without  my  permission. 
The  promise  was  evidently  made  in  the  Pick- 
wickian sense,  as  when  I  cabled  her  from 
Europe  not  to  come  the  answer  that  I  got  was 
the  announcement  of  her  arrival  in  Paris. 
There  were  six  of  our  immediate  family  in  the 
American  expeditionary  forces — ^my  wife,  one 
brother-in-law,  Richard  Derby,  and  we  four 
brothers.  Father,  busy  as  he  was,  during  the 
entire  time  we  were  abroad  wrote  to  each  of 
us  weekly,  and,  when  he  physically  could,  in 
his  own  hand. 


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CHAPTER  II 

SINS   OF   THE  FATHERS 

"Sons  of  the  sheltered  city — 

Unmade,  unhandled,  unmeet — 
Ye  pushed  them  raw  to  the  battle 

As  ye  picked  them  raw  from  the  street. 
And  what  did  ye  look,  they  should  compass? 

Warcraft  learned  in  a  breath, 
Knowledge  unto  occasion 
At  the  first  far  view  of  death?  " 

Kipling. 

\  Jl  7HILE  we  were  personally  working  at 
Plattsburg  the  national  administration, 
after  a  meandering  course,  in  which  much  of 
the  motion  was  retrograde,  had  finally  decided 
that  to  fight  a  war  in  France  it  was  necessary 
to  send  troops  to  that  part  of  the  world.  Out 
of  this  determination  Pershing*s  force  grew. 

Investigation  of  the  condition  of  our  mili- 
tary establishment  indicated  that  we  had 
virtually  nothing  available.     The  best  that 

21 


22  Average  Americans 

could  be  done  in  the  way  of  an  expeditionary 
force  was  to  group  two  regiments  of  marines 
and  four  regular  regiments  together  and  send 
them  to  Europe  as  the  First  Division.  So 
little  attention  and  thought  had  been  given 
to  military  matters  that  when  the  First  Divi- 
sion was  originally  grouped  it  consisted  of 
three  brigades,  not  two.  These  brigades  con- 
sisted of  the  Fifth  and  Sixth  Marines,  Twenty- 
sixth  and  Twenty-eighth  Infantry,  and  the 
Sixteenth  and  Eighteenth  Infantry.  In  the 
regiments  themselves  things  were  in  the  same 
chaotic  condition.  Battalions  contained  three 
companies  of  infantry  and  one  machine-gun 
company  each.  This  was  an  eleventh-hour 
change  from  the  old  system  of  four  companies 
of  infantry,  to  which  we  returned  later  in  the 
year.  We  had,  furthermore,  up  to  this  time, 
by  our  tables  of  organization,  companies  of  152 
men.  These  companies  were  raised  to  200 
men,  and  still  later  became  250. 

As  a  matter  of  fact,  the  strength  of  these 
companies  at  the  declaration  of  war  was  some- 
where around  sixty.     The  140  additional  were 


Sins  of  the  Fathers  23 

obtained  by  getting  a  percentage  by  transfer 
from  other  infantry  regiments,  and  filling  in 
the  balance  with  raw  recniits  who  had  just 
volunteered  for  service. 

My  own  regiment,  the  Twenty-sixth  In- 
fantry, entrained  early  in  June  at  San  Benito, 
Texas,  and  came  to  the  port  of  embarkation. 
New  York  City.  The  trip  always  stands  out 
in  my  mind,  although  I  did  not  join  the  regi- 
ment until  after  it  had  arrived  in  Europe, 
because  all  through  the  two  years  of  war  I  was 
pestered  by  a  paper  which  kept  constantly 
turning  up  concerning  some  $100  worth  of 
ham  and  cheese  that  was  supposed  to  have 
been  eaten  by  the  men  of  the  Twenty-sixth 
Infantry  as  they  passed  through  Houston. 
No  one  was  ever  able  to  furnish  me  with  any 
information  as  to  it,  but  in  the  best  approved 
military  style  the  communication  kept  circu- 
lating to  and  fro,  indorsement  after  indorse- 
ment being  added,  imtil,  when  I  last  saw  it, 
January,  19 19,  after  the  war  was  finished, 
there  were  some  twenty-eight  series  of  remarks, 
and  no  one  was  any  the  wiser. 


24  Average  Americans 

A  story  that  always  appealed  to  me  was 
told  me  by  one  of  my  officers,  of  the  time  when 
the  troop  train  was  lying  in  the  Jersey  marshes 
waiting  to  go  on  board  ship.  A  very  good 
officer,  Arnold  by  name,  had  command  of  one 
of  the  companies  of  the  Twenty-sixth  Infantry. 
A  ntimber  of  lieutenants  were  sent  from  the 
training  camps  to  join  the  First  Division.  The 
military  knowledge  of  the  lieutenants  con- 
sisted in  the  main  of  a  month  at  Plattsburg 
at  their  own  expense,  and  a  month  for  which 
the  government  paid.  The  lieutenants,  after 
getting  to  New  York,  had  their  uniforms 
pressed  and  cleaned  and  their  shoes  beauti- 
fully polished,  feeling  that  at  least  they  would 
look  the  part.  They  went  out  to  join  the 
troops,  who  were  lying  in  the  cars,  hot,  dirty 
and  uncomfortable,  after  traveling  for  four 
days.  Arnold  was  sitting  with  his  company, 
his  blouse  off,  unshaven,  with  his  feet  on  the 
seat  in  front  of  him.  One  of  the  nice  young 
lieutenants  came  in  to  report  to  him  looking, 
as  the  lieutenant  himself  told  me  afterward, 
like  a  fashionable  clothes  advertisement,  and 


:'««-^Sssife^-v'-; .'"«»-; 


m 


^    .TJ      ?,!  f      ? 

a 


24 


Average  Aincncaiis 


A  '^n*  vvas 

I    lt.  einar  h.  gausted  woimfiBae  when 

Lt.  Geqrge  Jackson    n  the  J^W'^yi?^il(^^ 

Capt.  Amiel  Frey  .  ,  "      "    27,  '18 

Lt.  Grover  R'tAtk^R^'^  P        A  «K  cny  §pCK| 

Lt.  Charles  H.  WeA^feftd  COlTWotinded 

Lt.  Wesley  Frsml  "p^gj^^y.^-jkilled  June^29,.'^ 

Lt.  James  M.  Barrett  gassed 

Lt.  Roland  W.  E^  ^^e^e  Sent  tr. 

Major  Theodore  RoosEVELt  Duditidad 

Lt.  B.  Vann 

Lt.  George  P.  Gustafson 

Lt.  Tuve  J.  Floden 

Lt.  Rexie  E.  Gilliam 

Lt.  John  P.  Gaines 

Lt.  Lewis  Tillman 

Lt.  Percy  E.  Le  Stourgeon 

Lt.  Brown  Lewis 

Capt.  Hamilton  K.  Foster 

Lt.  Paul  R.  Caruthers 


2 
3 
4 
5 
6 

7 
8 

9 
10 
II 
12 
13 
14 
15 
16 

17 

18 

19, 


killed  June  6,  '18 
wounded 
wounded 
wounded 


look  alj^  *Lt;  M.  Morris  Andrews 
troop  I     Lt.  William  C.  Pabnpy' 
1    Z2,   Lt-  Donald  H.  Grant 
23     Capt.  E.  D.  Morgan 
^^y^24    it.  Dennis  H.  Shillen 

25  Lt.  Harry  Dillon 

26  Lt.  Charles  Ridgely 

27  Lt.  Joseph  P.  Card 

28  Lt.  Stewart  A.  Baxter 
ci:^    ,^^29     Lt.  Thomas  D.  Amory 

30    Lt.  Thomas  B.  Cornell 


wounded 

wounded 

killed  Oct.  2,  '18 

wounded 

:   to   V 


wounded 


wounded 
killed  Oct.  4, 


wounded 

killed  Oct.  3,  '18 


Ilk- 


Sins  of  the  Fathers  25 

knowing  about  as  much  about  military  matters 
as  a  canary  bird. 

Arnold  looked  at  him  in  a  weary  way,  shook 
his  head  sadly  and  remarked  to  the  officer 
beside  him,  "We  have  only  ourselves  to  blame 
for  it."  Indeed,  we  were  to  blame  for  condi- 
tions, and  such  of  us  as  were  fortunate  enough 
to  see  service  in  Europe  had  the  sins  of  our 
unpreparedness  brought  before  us  in  the  most 
glaring  light. 

Just  how  much  training  and  experience  were 
of  value  was  everywhere  evident.  In  my 
opinion,  all  divisions  sent  over  by  this  country 
were  approximately  equal  in  intelligence  and 
courage.  There  was,  however,  the  greatest 
difference  between  the  veteran  divisions  and 
those  which  had  just  arrived.  Each  division, 
after  being  given  the  same  amount  of  training 
and  fighting,  would  show  up  much  the  same, 
but  put  a  division  which  had  been  fighting 
for  six  months  alongside  of  one  that  had  just 
arrived,  and  in  every  detail  you  could  see  the 
difference.  The  men  of  the  newly  arrived  di- 
vision were  as  coiirageous  as  the  men  of  the 


26  Average  Americans 

old  division.  Their  intelligence  was  as  good, 
but  they  did  not  know  the  small  things  which 
come  only  with  training  and  experience,  and 
which,  in  a  close  battle,  make  the  difference 
between  victory  and  defeat,  the  difference 
between  needless  sacrifice  and  the  sacrifice 
which  brings  results. 

A  great  friend  of  mine.  Colonel  Frederick 
Palmer,  put  this  to  me  very  clearly.  He  was 
observing  the  action  of  our  troops  in  the  Ar- 
gonne  and  came  on  a  young  lieutenant  with 
a  platoon  of  infantry.  The  lieutenant  was 
fidgeting  and  highly  nervous.  When  Palmer 
came  up  he  said,  "Sir,  there  is  a  machine  gun 
on  that  hill.  I  don't  know  whether  I  should 
attack  it  or  whether  I  should  wait  until  the 
troops  on  the  right  and  left  arrive  and  force 
it  out.  I  don't  know  whether  it  is  killing  my 
men  to  no  purpose  whatever  to  advance.  I 
don't  know  what  to  do.  I  am  not  afraid. 
My  men  are  not  afraid." 

This  man  belonged  to  one  of  the  newly 
arrived  divisions.  Given  the  experience,  he 
would  have  known  exactly  what  to  do.     If  he 


Sins  of  the  Fathers  27 

had  been  a  man  of  an  older  division  and  had 
seen  sufficient  service  he  would  have  been  doing 
what  was  necessary  when  Colonel  Palmer 
arrived. 

The  little  tricks  which  come  only  with 
soldiering  and  training,  which  do  not  appear 
in  the  accounts  of  the  battles  and  are  never 
found  in  the  citations  for  valor,  are  those 
which  make  the  great  difference.  For  exam- 
ple, Napoleon  has  said  that  an  army  travels 
on  its  stomach.  It  is  often  quoted  and  rarely 
understood,  yet  nothing  is  more  true.  The 
men  have  had  a  hard  day's  fighting.  They 
are  wet,  they  are  cold,  they  have  marched  for 
a  week,  mostly  at  night,  and  are  worn  out. 
Can  you  get  the  food  forward  to  them?  Can 
you  get  the  food  to  them  hot?  If  you  can 
get  hot  food  forward  to  them  you  have  in- 
creased the  fighting  efficiency  of  these  troops 
thirty  per  cent. 

Experienced  troops  get  this  food  forward. 
A  machine  working  on  past  experience  knows 
exactly  what  to  do.  The  supply  trains  keep 
track  of  their  advance  imits  and  follow  closely 


28  Average  Americans 

in  their  rear.  During  the  engagement  the 
supply  officers  are  planning  where  to  put  their 
rolling  kitchens  and  what  routes  can  be  used 
to  get  the  supplies  forward.  Meanwhile  the 
echelons  of  supply  in  the  rear  are  acting  in 
the  same  manner.  One  does  not  find  in  the 
drill-book  that  the  way  to  keep  coffee  and 
slum  hot  after  it  has  left  the  rolling  kitchens 
is  to  take  out  the  boilers  with  the  food  in  them, 
wrap  these  boilers  in  old  blankets,  put  them 
on  the  two-wheeled  machine-gun  carts,  which 
can  go  nearly  anywhere,  and  work  forward  to 
the  troops  in  this  way.  This  is  just  one  in- 
stance, one  trick  of  the  trade.  It  is  something 
that  only  training  and  experience  can  supply, 
and  yet  it  is  of  most  vital  importance.  I 
have  known  divisions  to  help  feed  the  more 
recently  arrived  divisions  on  their  right  and 
left,  when  all  have  had  the  same  facilities  to 
start  with.  I  have  known  new  troops,  fight- 
ing by  an  older  division,  to  be  forty  hours 
without  food  when  the  men  of  the  older  divi- 
sion had  been  eating  every  day. 
Right  in  the  ranks  of  a  regiment  you  could 


Sins  of  the  Fathers  29 

see  the  difference  made  by  training  and  expe- 
rience. Look  at  a  trained  man  alongside  of 
a  new  recruit  just  arrived  for  replacement. 
The  trained  man,  at  the  end  of  the  day's  fight- 
ing, will  fix  himself  up  a  funk  hole  where  he 
will  be  reasonably  safe  from  shell  fragments, 
will  cover  himself  with  a  blanket,  and  will  get 
some  sleep.  The  recruit  will  expose  himself 
tinnecessarily,  will  be  continuously  uncomfort- 
able, and  will  not  know  how  to  take  advantage 
of  whatever  opportunity  might  arise  to  make 
himself  more  comfortable.  The  result  is  that 
the  value  of  the  former  is  much  greater  from 
a  military  standpoint,  and  the  latter  runs  a 
far  greater  risk  physically  from  all  standpoints. 
Moreover,  when  the  test  comes,  as  it  generally 
does,  not  in  the  beginning  of  the  battle,  but 
toward  the  bitter  end,  when  every  last  ounce 
that  a  man  has  in  him  is  being  called  on,  the 
untrained  man  is  not  so  apt  to  have  the 
necessary  vitality  left  to  do  his  work. 

Our  equipment,  for  the  same  reason,  during 
the  early  days  of  the  war  was  most  imprac- 
ticable.   A  notable  example  of  this  was  the 


30  Average  Americans 

so-termed  ''iron  ration"  carried  on  the  men's 
backs.  The  meat  component  of  this  ration 
was  bacon.  In  certain  types  of  fighting,  those 
in  which  our  army  had  been  principally  en- 
gaged, this  may  have  been  best,  but  for  the 
work  in  Europe,  it  was  absolutely  impracti- 
cable. To  begin  with,  bacon  encourages 
thirst,  and  thirst,  where  troops  are  fighting  in 
many  of  the  districts  in  France,  is  almost 
impossible  to  satisfy.  A  canteen  of  water  a 
day  for  each  man  was  all  it  was  possible  to 
provide.  FurthemxOre,  bacon  has  to  be 
cooked,  and  this  again  is  often  impracticable. 
About  a  year  after  the  beginning  of  the  war, 
some  of  the  older  divisions  adopted  tinned 
beef,  which  went  among  the  men  under  the 
euphonious  name  of  "monkey  meat." 

To  the  average  person  in  this  country  these 
things  are  not  evident.  They  read  of  battles, 
they  read  of  the  courage  of  the  men,  of  the 
casualties,  of  the  glory.  They  do  not  appre- 
ciate the  unnecessary  sacrifices  and  the  un- 
necessary deaths  and  hardships  entailed  on  us 
by  our  policies. 


Sins  of  the  Fathers  31 

It  is  all  very  well  for  someone  comfortably 
ensconced  in  his  swivel  chair  in  Washington 
to  issue  the  statement  that  he  glories  in  the 
fact  that  we  went  into  this  war  unprepared. 
It  may  be  glorious  for  him,  but  it  is  not  glori- 
ous for  those  who  fight  the  war,  for  those  who 
pay  the  price.  The  clap-trap  statesmen  of 
this  type  should  be  forced  to  go  themselves  or 
at  least  have  their  sons,  as  guarantee  of  their 
good  faith,  join  the  fighting  forces.  Needless 
to  say,  none  of  them  did. 

Except  for  one  instance,  I  do  not  believe 
there  is  a  single  male  member  of  the  families 
of  the  administration  who  felt  that  his  duty 
called  him  to  be  where  the  fighting  was,  a 
single  male  member  who  heard  a  gun  fired  in 
anger.  I  have  heard  some  of  these  estimable 
gentlemen  say  they  considered  it  improper 
to  use  any  influence  to  get  to  the  front  much 
though  they  desired  to  do  so.  This  type  of 
observation  is  hypocritical.  No  doubt  the 
men  who  gave  their  lives,  their  eyes,  their 
arms,  or  their  legs  would  feel  deeply  grieved 
to  be  robbed  of  this  privilege. 


32  Average  Americans 

I  have  quoted  above  my  father's  statement 
that  he  would  rather  have  explained  why  he 
went  to  war  than  why  he  did  not,  for  the  bene- 
fit of  these  gentlemen.  I  should  think  they 
would  rather  explain  why  they  used  their 
influence  to  be  where  the  danger  was  than 
why  they  did  not.  As  my  father  wrote  me 
in  June,  191 8:  ''When  the  trumpet  sounds 
for  Armageddon,  only  those  win  the  tmdying 
honor  and  glory  who  stand  where  the  danger 
is  sorest/' 


CHAPTER  III 

OVERSEAS 

"Behind  him  lay  the  gray  Azores, 
Behind  the  gates  of  Hercules, 
Before  him  not  the  ghosts  of  shores 
Before  him  only  shoreless  seas." 

Joaquin  Miller. 

I\yi  Y  brother  and  I  sailed  from  New  York 
for  Bordeaux  on  June  i8,  1917.  One 
little  incident  of  the  voyage  always  stands  out 
in  my  mind.  As  we  were  leaving  the  harbor, 
the  decks  crowded  with  passengers,  everyone 
keyed  up  to  a  high  state  of  excitement,  our 
flag  was  lowered  for  some  reason.  While 
being  lowered  it  blew  from  the  halyards  and 
fell  into  the  water,  and  as  it  fell  one  could 
hear  everyone  who  saw  it  catch  his  breath, 
like  a  great  sob. 

The  passenger  list  was  polyglot.     French 
returning  from  missions  to  the  United  States, 
3  33 


34  Average  Americans 

Red  Cross  workers,  doctors,  ambulance  driv- 
ers, and  a  few  casual  officers.  We  spent  our 
time  trying  to  improve  our  French  to  such  an 
extent  that  we  could  understand  or  be  under- 
stood when  speaking  it  with  others  than  Ameri- 
cans. Our  teacher  was  Felix,  a  chauffeur. 
He  had  already  served  in  the  artillery  in  the 
French  army,  finally  finishing  the  war  as  a 
captain  in  the  same  branch  of  the  service  in 
the  United  States  army. 

We  touched  the  shore  of  France  toward  the 
end  of  June  and,  passing  a  few  outgoing  ships 
and  a  couple  of  torpedoed  vessels,  steamed 
slowly  up  the  broad,  tranquil  estuary  of  the 
Garonne.  In  the  town  of  Bordeaux  all  the 
inhabitants  were  greatly  excited  about  Les 
Americaines.  We  were  the  first  they  had  seen 
since  the  news  had  reached  France  that  we 
were  sending  troops,  and  as  we  drove  through 
the  multi-colored  market  the  old  crones  would 
get  up  and  cackle  their  approval. 

To  the  average  Frenchman  who  had  always 
been  accustomed  to  a  sound  scheme  of  pre- 
paredness and  trained  men  who  could  go  to 


Overseas  35 

the  colors  for  immediate  service,  we  were 
taken  to  be  simply  the  first  contingent  of  an 
enormous  army  which  would  follow  without 
interruption.  The  poor  people  were  bitterly 
disappointed  when  they  found  that  the  hand- 
ful of  untrained  men  alluded  to  by  our  papers 
in  this  country  as  "the  splendid  little  regular 
army''  represented  all  that  we  had  available 
in  the  United  States,  and  that  ten  months 
would  pass  before  a  really  appreciable  number 
of  troops  would  arrive. 

From  Bordeaux  we  went  by  train  to  Paris. 
In  the  train  the  same  interest  in  and  excite- 
ment over  us  continued.  The  compartment 
was  full  of  French  soldiers,  who  asked  us  all 
about  our  plans,  the  number  of  our  troops  and 
when  they  would  arrive.  Outside  it  was  a 
beautiful  day,  and  the  green,  well-cultivated 
fields  and  picturesque,  quiet  villages  made  it 
hard  to  realize  we  were  really  in  France, 
where  the  greatest  war  in  history  was  being 
fought. 

On  reaching  Paris  we  reported  to  General 
Pershing.     He  asked  us  what  duty  we  wished. 


3^  Average  Americans 

We  both  replied,  service  with  troops.  He  as- 
signed my  brother  at  once  to  the  Sixteenth 
Infantry,  and  ordered  me  to  go  with  the  ad- 
vance billeting  detail  to  the  Gondecourt  area, 
where  our  troops  were  to  train. 

Meanwhile  the  convoyed  ships  containing 
the  troops  had  arrived  at  St.  Nazaire.  On 
the  way  over  oflficers  and  men  had  tried  to  do 
what  they  could  to  prepare  themselves.  One 
of  the  officers  told  me  he  spent  his  time  learn- 
ing the  rules  of  land  warfare  for  civilized 
nations  as  agreed  on  by  the  Hague  tribunal. 
Like  the  dodo,  the  mammoth,  and  interna- 
tional law,  these  rules  had  long  since  become 
extinct. 

From  St.  Nazaire  a  battalion  of  the  Six- 
teenth Infantry  went  to  Paris  and  paraded 
on  the  Fourth  of  July.  The  population  went 
crazy  over  them.  Cheering  crowds  lined  the 
streets,  flowers  were  thrown  at  them,  and  I 
think  the  men  felt  that  France  and  war  were 

not  so  bad  after  all.     As  a  side  light  on  our 

* 

efficiency  in  this  parade  the  troops  were 
marched  in  column  of  squads  because  the 


Overseas  37 

men  were  so  green  that  the  officers  were  afraid 
to  adopt  any  formation  where  it  was  necessary 
to  keep  a  longer  line  properly  dressed. 

Meanwhile  three  officers  and  I  had  left 
Paris  and  gone  to  Gondecourt.  The  officers 
were  General  (then  Colonel)  McAlexander, 
who  since  made  a  splendid  record  for  himself 
when  the  Third  Division  turned  the  German 
offensive  of  July  15,  19 18,  east  of  Chateau 
Thierry;  General  (then  Major)  Leslie  McNair, 
afterward  head  of  the  artillery  department  of 
the  training  section;  and  Colonel  Porter,  of 
the  medical  corps.  We  knew  nothing  about 
billeting.  The  sum  total  of  my  knowledge 
was  a  hazy  idea  that  it  meant  putting  the  men 
in  spare  beds  in  a  town  and  that  it  was  pro- 
hibited by  the  Constitution  of  the  United 
States. 

Toward  evening  we  arrived  at  the  little 
French  village  of  Gondecourt.  The  streets 
were  decorated  with  flowers,  and  groups  of 
little  French  children  ran  to  and  fro  shouting 
Vive  les  A  mericaines  I  We  were  met  by  French 
officers  and  taken  to  the  inn,  a  charming  little 


38  Average  Americans 

brownstone  building,  where  French  officers, 
soldiers  and  civilians  mingled  without  distinc- 
tion. There  the  mayor  of  the  town  and  the 
town  major,  who  is  appointed  in  all  zones  of 
the  army  as  the  representative  of  the  military, 
came  to  call  on  us,  and  we  started  to  get  down 
to  business.  A  most  difficult  thing  for  our 
men  to  realize  was  the  various  formalities 
through  which  one  must  go  in  working  with 
the  French.  Many  times  real  trouble  was 
caused  because  the  Americans  did  not  under- 
stand what  a  part  in  French  liiepolitesse  plays. 
No  conversation  on  military  matters  is  carried 
on  by  the  French  in  the  way  we  would.  You 
do  not  go  straight  to  the  point.  Each  parti- 
cipant first  expresses  himself  on  the  virtues 
and  great  deeds  of  the  other,  and  after  this 
the  sordid  matter  of  business  in  hand  is  taken 
up.  We  were  poorly  equipped  for  this.  Only 
McNair  and  I  spoke  French  at  all,  and  ours 
was  weird  and  awful  to  a  degree.  We  had 
both  been  taught  by  Americans  after  the  best 
approved  United  States  method. 

The  French  town  major  with   whom  we 


BRIGADIER  GENERAL  FRANK  A.   PARKER,    LIEUTENANT  COLON  E  L  TH  EO  DO  R  E 
ROOSEVELT,     AND     MRS.     ROOSEVELT    AT     ROMAGNE 


Overseas  39 

dwelt  was  an  old  fellow,  a  veteran  of  the  war 
of  1 870.  He  had  an  enormous  white  mustache. 
He  ''snorted  like  a  buffalo,"  and  the  one  word 
that  I  always  understood  was  parfaitement, 
which  he  constantly  used. 

Right  by  this  area  was  the  birthplace  of 
Jeanne  d'Arc.  The  humble  little  village, 
Domremy,  is  just  like  any  of  those  in  the  sur- 
rounding country.  The  house  where  she  is 
supposed  to  have  lived  is  rather  smaller  than 
its  neighbors.  In  many  ways  Jeanne  d'Arc 
and  this  little  village  symbolize  France  to  me. 
France  is  France  not  on  account  of  those  who 
scintillate  in  Paris,  but  on  account  of  the 
himibler  people,  those  whom  the  tourist  never 
sees,  or  if  he  does,  forgets.  France  has 
no  genius  for  politics.  Her  Chamber  of 
Deputies  is  composed  of  men  who  amount  to 
little  and  who  do  not  share  the  national  ideals 
and  visions,  but  in  the  body  of  the  people  you 
find  that  flaming  and  pure  patriotism  which 
counts  no  costs  when  the  fight  is  for  France. 
The  national  impulse  will  exist  as  long  as  there 
is  a  peasant  left  alive. 


40  Average  Americans 

The  training  area  was  composed  of  a  number 
of  towns  with  from  150  to  500  civihan  popula- 
tion. We  ran  from  village  to  village  in  auto- 
mobiles, surprised  and  appalled  by  the  number 
of  men  that  the  French  military  were  able  to 
put  in  each. 

These  small  French  villages  in  the  north 
of  France  resemble  nothing  that  we  have  in 
our  country.  They  are  charming  and  pic- 
turesque, but  various  features  are  lacking 
which  to  the  well-ordered  American  mind 
causes  pain.  To  begin  with,  there  is  no  system 
of  plumbing.  The  village  gets  all  its  water 
supply  from  the  public  fountains.  This  natu- 
rally makes  a  bath  an  almost  unknown  luxury. 
Many  times  I  have  been  asked  by  the  French 
peasants  why  I  wanted  a  bath,  and  should  it 
be  winter,  was  I  not  afraid  I  would  be  taken 
sick  if  I  took  one.  Aroimd  these  public 
fountains  the  village  life  centers.  There  the 
chattering  groups  of  women  and  girls  are 
always  congregating.  There  the  gossip  of  the 
countryside  originates  and  nms  its  course. 
There  is  rarely  electric  light  in  the  small  towns. 


Overseas  4^ 

and  enormous  manure  piles  are  in  front  of 
each  house  and  in  the  street.  The  houses 
themselves  are  a  combination  aflfair,  bam  and 
house  under  the  same  roof.  The  other  fea- 
tures that  are  always  present  are  the  church 
and  caf6.  Even  in  the  smallest  town  there 
are  generally  charming  chapels.  The  caf6s 
are  where  the  opinions  of  the  French  nation 
are  formed. 

The  peasants  who  live  in  these  villages  have 
an  immemorial  custom  behind  them  in  most 
of  their  actions.  They  have  the  careful  atti- 
tude of  an  old  people,  very  difficult  for  our 
young  and  wasteful  nation  to  understand. 
Each  stray  bit  of  wood,  each  old  piece  of  iron, 
is  saved  and  laid  aside  for  future  use.  No 
great  wasteful  fires  roar  on  the  hearth,  but 
rather  a  few  fagots,  carefully  measured  to  do 
just  what  is  intended  for  them. 

The  families  have  lived  in  the  same  spot 
for  generations.  Their  roots  are  very  firmly 
in  the  ground.  Individually  they  are  a  curi- 
ous combination  of  simplicity  and  shrewdness. 
One  old  woman  with  whom  my  brother  Archie 


42  Average  Americans 

was  billeted  in  the  town  of  Boviolles  became 
quite  a  friend  of  ours.  We  talked  together 
in  the  evening,  sitting  by  the  great  fireplace, 
in  which  a  little  bit  of  a  fire  would  be  burning. 
She  had  never  in  her  life  been  farther  than  six 
or  eight  miles  from  the  village  of  Boviolles. 
To  her  Paris  was  as  unreal  as  Colchis  or  Baby- 
lon to  us.  She,  in  common  with  her  country 
folk,  looked  forward  to  the  arrival  of  the  Amer- 
ican army,  much  in  the  way  we  would  look 
forward  to  the  arrival  of  the  Hottentots.  In 
fact,  when  she  heard  we  were  coming  to  the 
village,  she  at  first  decided  to  run  away.  To 
her  the  United  States  was  a  wilderness  in- 
habited by  Indians  and  cowboys.  We  told 
her  about  New  York  City  and  Chicago.  We 
told  her  that  New  York  was  larger  than  Paris 
and  that  neither  of  us  had  ever  shot  a  bear 
there  and  no  Indians  tomahawked  people  on 
the  street.  We  explained  to  her  that  if  you 
took  all  the  houses  in  the  village  and  placed 
them  one  on  top  of  another  they  would  not 
stand  as  high  as  some  of  our  buildings.  As  a 
result,  she  felt  toward  us  much  as  the  con- 


Overseas  43 

temporaries  of  Marco  Polo  felt  toward  him 
— we  were  amiable  story-tellers  and  that 
was  all. 

Once  I  introduced  a  French  officer  to  Colonel 
William  J.  Donovan,  of  the  165th  Infantry. 
In  the  course  of  my  introduction  I  mentioned 
the  fact  that  Colonel  Donovan  came  from 
Buffalo.  After  Donovan  had  gone,  the  French- 
man remarked  to  me,  *' Buffalo  is  very  wild, 
is  it  not?''  I  answered  him  guardedly,  "Not 
very.'*  He  explained,  ''But  it  is  the  place 
where  you  himt  that  great  animal,  is  it 
not?" 

Something  that  struck  me  forcibly  was  the 
total  lack  of  roving  desire  among  the  peasants. 
Where  they  had  been  bom,  there  they  desired 
to  live  and  die.  This  you  would  see  in  the 
poilu  in  the  trenches,  whose  idea  always  was 
to  return  home  again  to  the  house  where  he 
was  bom. 

There  is  also  a  very  real  democracy  in  the 
French  army.  This  should  be  borne  in  mind 
by  all  those  who  go  about  talking  of  the  mili- 
tary aristocracy  which  would  be  built  up  by 


44  Average  Americans 

universal  service  in  this  country.  In  France 
I  have  seen  sons  of  the  most  prominent  fami- 
lies, the  descendants  of  the  old  haute  noblesse^ 
as  privates  or  noncommissioned  officers.  I 
also  have  seen  in  the  little  French  villages  a 
high  officer  of  the  French  army  returning  to 
his  family  for  his  leave,  that  family  being  the^ 
humblest  of  peasants,  living  in  a  cottage  of 
two  rooms.  I  have  dined  with  a  general, 
been  introduced  by  him  to  the  remainder  of 
his  family,  and  found  them  privates  and  non- 
commissioned officers. 

The  French  sent  to  the  Gondecourt  area 
a  division  of  the  "Chasseurs  Alpins''  to  help 
train  us.  The  chasseurs  are  a  separate  unit 
from  the  French  infantry  and  have  their  own 
particular  customs.  To  begin  with,  their 
military  organization  is  slightly  different,  in 
that  they  do  not  have  regiments  and  the 
battalion  forms  the  unit.  Their  uniforms 
are  dark  blue  with  silver  buttons,  and  they 
do  not  wear  the  ordinary  French  cap,  but 
have  a  dark-blue  cloth  UrHy  or  tam-o'- 
shanter,  with  an  Alpine  horn  embroidered  in 


Overseas  45 

silver  as  insignia.  The  corps  is  an  old  one 
and  has  many  traditions.  Their  pride  is  to 
consider  themselves  as  quite  apart  from  the 
infantry;  indeed,  they  feel  highly  insulted  if 
you  confuse  the  two,  although,  to  all  intents 
and  purposes,  their  work  is  identical.  They 
have  songs  of  their  own,  some  of  them  very 
uncomplimentary  to  the  infantry,  and  highly 
seasoned,  according  to  our  American  ideas. 
They  have  a  custom  when  marching  on  parade 
of  keeping  a  step  about  double  the  time  of  the 
ordinary  slow  step.  Their  bugle  corps,  which 
they  have  instead  of  our  regimental  brass 
bands,  are  very  snappy  and  effective,  and  the 
men  have  a  trick  of  waving  their  bugles  in 
unison  before  they  strike  a  note,  which  is 
very  effective.  They  have  no  drums.  These 
quaint,  squat,  jovial,  dark-haired  fellows 
were  billeted  in  the  villages  all  around  our 
area. 

The  billeting  party,  after  working  very  hard 
and  accomplishing  very  little,  divided  the 
area  up  as  the  French  suggested.  In  advance 
of  the  remainder  of  our  troops  the  battalion 


46  Average  Americans 

of  the  Sixteenth  Infantry,  which  paraded  in 
Paris  on  the  Fourth  of  July,  arrived.  We 
were  all  down  at  the  train  to  meet  them,  as 
was  a  battalion  of  the  Chasseurs  Alpins. 
They  came  in  the  ordinary  day  coaches  used 
in  France.  I  remember  hearing  an  officer  say 
that  these  were  hard  on  the  men.  It  was  the 
last  time  that  I  ever  saw  our  troops  travel  in 
anything  but  box  cars,  and  this  arrangement 
was  made,  I  think,  as  a  special  compliment  by 
the  French  Government. 

A  couple  of  days  afterward  came  the  Four- 
teenth of  July.  The  French  had  a  parade, 
and  our  troops  took  part  in  it.  The  French 
troops  came  first  past  the  reviewing  officers, 
who  were  both  French  and  American.  The 
infantry  of  each  battalion  passed  first,  bay- 
onets glittering,  lines  smartly  dressed;  fol- 
lowing them  in  turn  the  machine-gun  com- 
panies, or  "jackass  batteries,**  as  they  were 
called  by  our  men,  the  mules  finely  curry- 
combed  and  the  harness  shining.  Their  bands, 
with  the  brass  trimipets,  played  snappily. 
Altogether  they  gave  an  appearance  of  con- 


Overseas  47 

fident  efficiency.  Then  came  our  troops — ^in 
column  of  squads.  What  held  good  in  Paris 
still  held  good — our  splendidly  trained  little 
army  did  not  dare  trust  itself  to  take  up 
platoon  front. 


CHAPTER  IV 

TRAINING   IN  FRANCE 

"I  wish  myself  could  talk  to  myself  as  I  left  'im  a  year  ago; 
I  could  tell  'im  a  lot  that  would  save  'im  a  lot  in  the  things 

that  'e  ought  to  know. 
When  I  think  o'  that  ignorant  barrack  bird  it  almost  makes 

me  cry." 

fClPLING. 

A  DAY  or  two  after  the  Fourteenth  of  July 
review  the  rest  of  the  troops  arrived  and 
my  personal  fortune  hung  in  the  balance,  as  I 
was  still  unattached.  Colonel  Duncan,  after- 
ward Major  General  Duncan,  commander  of 
the  Seventy-seventh  and  Eighty-second  divi- 
sions, was  then  commanding  the  Twenty- 
sixth  Infantry.  One  of  his  majors  had  turned 
out  to  be  incompetent.  He  came  to  General 
Sibert  and  asked  if  he  had  an  extra  major  to 
whom  he  could  give  a  try-out. 

*'Yes,"    replied    General    Sibert.     '^Why 

not  try  Roosevelt?" 

48 


Training  in  France  49 

*'Send  him  along  and  I  will  see  what  he's 
good  for,"  was  Duncan^s  reply. 

I  went  that  day,  took  command  of  my  bat- 
talion the  day  after,  and  never  left  the  Twenty- 
sixth  Infantry,  except  when  wounded,  until 
just  before  coming  back  to  this  country  after 
the  war. 

Most  of  the  Twenty-sixth  Infantry  was 
billeted  in  a  town  called  Demange-aux-Eaux, 
one  of  the  largest  in  the  area.  By  it  flowed  a 
good-sized  stream,  a  convenient  bathtub  for 
officers  and  men  alike.  We  started  at  once 
cleaning  up  places  for  the  company  kitchens, 
getting  the  billets  as  comfortable  as  possible 
and  selecting  sites  for  drill  grounds. 

The  men,  who  up  to  this  time  had  been  be- 
wildered by  the  rapid  changes,  now  began  to 
find  themselves  and  make  up  to  the  French 
inhabitants.  I  have  seen  time  and  time  again 
a  group  composed  of  two  or  three  poilus  and 
two  or  three  doughboys  wandering  down  the 
street  arm  in  arm,  all  talking  at  once,  neither 
nationality  understanding  the  other  and  all 
having    a    splendid    time.     The    Americans' 


50  Average  Americans 

love  for  children  asserted  itself  and  the  men 
made  fast  friends  with  such  youngsters  as 
there  were.  It  is  a  sad  fact  that  there  are 
very  few  children  in  northern  France.  In 
the  evenings,  after  their  drill  was  over,  the  men 
would  sit  in  groups  with  the  women  and  chil- 
dren, talking  and  laughing.  Sometimes  some 
particularly  ambitious  soldier  would  get  a 
French  dictionary  and  laboriously  endeavor 
to  pick  out,  word  by  word,  various  sentences. 
Others,  feeling  that  the  French  had  better 
learn  our  language  rather  than  we  learn  theirs, 
endeavored  to  instruct  their  new  friends  in 
English. 

About  this  time  that  national  institution 
of  France,  vin  ordinaire,  was  introduced  to 
our  men.  The  two  types,  vin  blanc,  white 
wine,  and  vin  rouge,  red  wine,  were  immediately 
christened  vin  blink  and  vin  rough.  The  fact 
that  this  wine  could  be  bought  for  a  very 
small  amount  caused  much  interest.  Cham- 
pagne also  came  well  within  the  reach  of  every- 
one's purse.  To  most  of  the  men,  champagne, 
up  to  this  time,  had  been  something  they  read 


Training  in  France  51 

about,  and  was  connected  in  their  minds  with 
Broadway  and  plutocracy.  It  represented 
to  them  untold  wealth  completely  surrounded 
by  stage  beauties.  Here,  all  of  a  sudden, 
they  found  champagne  something  which  could 
be  bought  by  the  poorest  buck  private.  This, 
in  some  cases,  had  a  temporarily  disastrous 
effect,  for  under  circumstances  such  as  these 
a  number  of  men  might  naturally  feel  that 
they  should  lay  in  a  sufficient  supply  of  cham- 
pagne to  last  them  in  memory,  if  nothing  else, 
through  the  rest  of  their  lives. 

I  remember  particularly  one  of  my  men 
who  dined  almost  exclusively  on  champagne 
one  evening  and  returned  to  his  company  with 
his  sense  of  honor  perhaps  slightly  distorted 
and  his  common  sense  entirely  lacking.  The 
company  commander,  Captain  Arnold,  of 
whom  I  spoke  before,  was  standing  in  front 
of  his  billet  when  this  man  appeared  with  his 
rifle  on  his  shoulder,  saluted  in  the  most  cor- 
rect military  manner,  and  said,  '*I  desire  the 
company  commander's  permission  to  shoot 
Private  So-and-So,  who  has  made  some  very 


52  Average  Americans 

insulting  remarks  concerning  the  town  in  which 
I  Kved  in  the  United  States.*' 

Trouble  of  all  sorts,  however,  was  very 
small  considering  the  circumstances,  and  de- 
creased with  every  month  the  troops  were  in 
France.  We  always  found  that  the  new  men 
who  arrived  for  replacements  were  the  ones 
who  were  most  likely  to  overstep  the  bounds, 
and  with  them  it  was  generally  the  novelty 
rather  than  anything  else. 

Then  came  the  question  of  French  money. 
We  were  all  paid  in  francs.  To  begin  with,  our 
soldiers  received  eight  or  ten  times  as  much 
pay  as  the  average  French  soldier.  This 
put  them  in  th^  position  of  bloated  pluto- 
crats. Then,  too,  none  of  us  had  very  much 
idea  of  what  French  money  meant.  Since 
the  war  the  paper  of  which  French  money 
was  made  had  been  of  very  inferior  quality, 
and  I  know  I  personally  felt  that  when  I  could 
get  anything  concrete,  such  as  a  good  dinner, 
in  exchange  for  these  very  dilapidated  bits  of 
paper,  I  had  made  a  real  bargain.  The  sol- 
diers, I  am  sure,  were  of  the  same  opinion. 


Training  in  France  53 

Prices  tripled  wherever  we  were  in  France. 
Indeed,  I  doubt  if  in  all  their  existence  the 
little  villages  in  our  training  area  had  ever 
had  a  tenth  part  of  the  money  in  circulation 
that  appeared  just  after  pay  day  for  the  troops. 
Of  course,  the  French  overcharged  our  men. 
It's  human  nature  to  take  as  much  as  you  can 
get,  and  the  French  are  human.  One  should 
remember,  in  blaming  them  for  this,  that  our 
troops,  before  sailing  for  France,  were  over- 
charged by  people  in  this  country.  When 
the  doughboy  wanted  eggs,  for  instance,  he 
wanted  them  badly,  and  that  was  all  there 
was  to  it.  In  every  company  there  was  gen- 
erally one  good  "crap  shooter/'  What  the 
French  did  not  get  he  got,  and,  contrary  to  the 
usual  theory  of  gamblers'  money,  he  usually 
saved  it.  One  of  the  trials  of  an  officer  is  the 
men's  money.  Before  action,  before  any  move, 
the  men  who  have  any  money  always  come 
to  their  C.  0.  and  ask  him  to  keep  it  for  them. 
I  remember  once  an  old  sergeant  came  to  me 
and  asked  me  to  keep  two  or  three  thousand 
francs  for  him.     I  did.    Next  day  he  was 


54  Average  Americans 

A.  W.  O.  L.  He  had  not  wanted  to  keep  the 
money  for  fear  of  spending  it  if  he  got  drunk. 
When  he  came  back  I  tried  him  by  court- 
martial,  reduced  him  to  the  ranks,  and  gave 
him  back  his  money. 

During  the  twenty  months  that  I  spent  in 
Europe  I  was  serving  with  troops  virtually 
the  entire  time,  commanding  them  in  villages 
all  through  the  north  of  France,  through  Lux- 
embourg and  Germany,  and  in  all  that 
period  I  never  had  one  complaint  from  the 
inhabitants  concerning  the  treatment  by  our 
men  of  either  women  or  children.  When  we 
went  into  conquered  territory  we  did  not 
even  consider  it  necessary  to  speak  to  the 
men  on  this  point,  and  our  confidence  was 
justified.  Occasionally  a  man  and  his  wife 
would  call  on  me  and  ask  if  Private  "So-and- 
So'*  was  really  a  millionaire  in  America,  as 
he  had  said,  because,  if  so,  they  thought  it 
would  be  a  good  thing  for  him  to  marry  their 
daughter.  This  would,  however,  generally 
smooth  itself  out,  as  Private  *'So-and-So,  ** 
as  a  rule,  had  no  intention  of  marrying  their 


Training  in  France  55 

daughter,  and  they  had  no  intention  of  letting 
her  marry  him  when  they  found  out  that  the 
statement  concerning  his  family  estates  in 
America  was,  to  put  it  mildly,  highly  colored. 
Oddly  enough,  this  is  not  as  queer  as  one 
might  think.  The  company  cook  in  one  of 
the  companies  of  our  battalion  inherited, 
while  in  Europe,  about  $600,000.  It  never 
bothered  him  from  any  standpoint.  He  still 
remained  cook  and  cooked  as  well  as  ever. 

The  average  day's  training  was  divided 
about  as  follows:  First  call  about  6  o'clock, 
an  hour  for  breakfast  and  policing.  After 
that,  the  troops  marched  out  to  some  drill 
ground,  where  they  maneuvered  all  day,  tak- 
ing their  lunch  there  and  returning  late  in 
the  afternoon.  Formal  retreat  was  then  held, 
then  supper,  and  by  10  o'clock  taps  sounded. 
The  American  troops  experienced  a  certain 
amount  of  difficulty  in  fixing  on  satisfactory 
meeting  grounds  with  the  corresponding  French 
units  with  whom  they  were  training.  Our 
battalion,  however,  was  fortunate,  but  another 
battalion  of  our  regiment  had  at  periods  to 


56  Average  Americans 

turn  out  before  daylight  in  order  to  make  the 
march  necessary  to  connect. 

This  battalion  during  the  early  part  of  our 
training  was  billeted  in  the  same  town.  One 
day  their  first  call  sounded  at  somewhere 
around  4.15.  A  good  sergeant,  Murphy  by 
name,  an  old-timer  who  had  been  in  the  army 
twenty-four  years,  had  his  platoon  all  in  one 
billet.  He  heard  the  first  call,  did  not  realize 
that  it  was  not  for  him,  and  turned  his 
platoon  out.  By  the  time  he  had  the  platoon 
filing  out  he  discovered  his  mistake.  At  the 
same  time  he  noticed  that  one  of  the  men  had 
not  turned  out.  Murphy  was  a  strict  disci- 
plinarian and  he  took  a  squad  from  the  platoon 
and  went  in  to  find  the  man.  The  man  ex- 
plained that  this  was  not  the  correct  call. 
Sergeant  Murphy  said  that  that  made  no 
difference,  that  when  a  platoon  was  formed, 
the  place  for  every  man  was  with  the  platoon, 
and,  to  the  delight  of  the  platoon  and  partic- 
ularly the  squad  which  assisted  him,  escorted 
the  recalcitrant  sleeper  out  and  dropped  him 
in  the  stream. 


Training  in  France  57 

Sergeant  Murphy  was  the  type  of  man  who 
IS  always  an  asset  to  a  command.  On  the 
way  to  Europe  he  had  been  in  charge  of  the 
kitchen  poHce  on  board  the  transport  and 
there  had  earned  himself  the  name  of  ''  Spuds*' 
Murphy.  He  was  always  faithful  to  whatever 
job  he  was  detailed.  When  things  were  break- 
ing badly  he  could  always  be  depended  on  to 
cheer  the  men  up  by  joking  with  them.  He 
was  an  old  fellow,  bent  and  very  gray,  and  he 
was  physically  unable  to  stand  a  lot  of  the 
racket,  so  I  used  to  order  him  to  stay  be- 
hind with  the  kitchens  when  we  went  into 
action.  One  night,  when  the  troops  were 
moving  up  to  the  front  line,  I  was  standing 
by  the  side  of  the  road  checking  off  the 
platoons  as  they  passed.  I  thought  I  rec- 
ognized one  figure  silhouetted  against  the 
gray  sky.  A  moment  later  I  was  positive 
when  I  heard,  *'Sure  and  if  you  feel  that 
way  about  the  Gairmans  there're  as  good  as 
beat.*' 

' '  Sergeant  Murphy  ? ' ' 

"Sor-r?" 


58  Average  Americans 

"What  are  you  doing  here?  Didn't  I  tell 
you  to  stay  with  the  kitchens?" 

"But  I  didn't  be  thinkin'  the  Major  would 
be  wantin'  me  to  stay  coffee  coolin'  all  the 
time,  so  I  just  come  up  for  a  little  visit  with 
the  men." 

The  actual  training  consisted  of  practice 
with  the  hand  grenade,  rifle  grenade,  automatic 
rifle,  rifle,  and  bayonet,  and  in  trench  digging. 
We  had  a  certain  amount  of  difficulty  merging 
the  troops  in  with  the  French.  It  was  really 
very  hard  for  men  who  did  not  speak  the  same 
language  to  get  anywhere.  In  addition  to 
this,  the  French  temperament  is  so  different 
from  ours.  They  always  felt  that  much  could 
be  learned  by  our  troops  watching  theirs. 
But  the  soldier  doesn't  learn  by  watching. 
His  eye  doesn't  teach  his  muscles  service. 
The  way  to  train  men  is  by  physical  exercise 
and  explanation,  not  by  simply  watching 
others  train. 

At  one  time  an  artillery  demonstration  was 
scheduled.  In  it  we  were  to  see  a  rolling 
barrage  illustrated  and  also  destructive  fire. 


Training  in  France  59 

The  men  paid  no  attention  at  all  to  the  bom- 
bardment. A  company  commander  described 
to  me  how  the  men  lay  down  and  rested  when 
they  got  to  the  maneuvers  ground. 

'* Whizz,  Bill,  hear  that  boy,"  casually  re- 
marked one,  when  the  first  shell  went  over. 
*'What  was  it  you  said?" 

An  interesting  sidelight  on  our  military  es- 
tablishment is  afforded  by  the  fact  that  on  our 
arrival  in  France  there  was  no  one  with  the 
command  who  had  ever  shot  an  automatic  rifle, 
thrown  a  hand  grenade,  shot  a  rifle  grenade, 
used  a  trench  mortar  or  a  .37-millimeter  gun. 
These  were  all  modem  methods  of  waging  war- 
fare, yet  none  of  our  military  had  been  trained 
to  the  least  degree  in  any  of  them.  To  all  of 
us  they  were  absolutely  new.  The  closest  any 
of  us  came  to  any  previous  knowledge  was 
from  occasional  pictures  we  had  seen  in  the 
illustrated  reviews. 

The  Major  of  the  French  battalion  with 
whom  we  trained  was  named  Menacci.  He 
was  a  Corsican  by  birth  and  looked  like  a  stage 
pirate.     He  had  a  long  black  beard,  sparkling 


6o  Avera  ge  Americans 

black  eyes,  and  a  great  appearance  of  ferocity, 
but  was  as  gentle  a  soul  as  I  have  ever  known. 
The  topic  that  interested  him  above  all  others 
was  the  question  of  marriage.  He  was  just 
like  a  young  girl  or  boy  and  loved  to  be  teamed 
about  it.  A  very  fine  fellow  called  Beauclare 
assisted  him.  Beauclare  was  from  the  fiorth 
of  France,  tall  and  light-haired,  and  full  of 
energy.  He  would  strip  off  his  coat,  throw 
grenades  with  the  men,  and  join  in  the  exercises 
with  as  much  enjo3niient  as  anyone. 

Curiously  enough,  the  good  fellowship  of  the 
French  made  things  rather  hard  for  many  of 
us.  The  Chasseurs  were  as  kind  as  could  be, 
and  I  never  shall  cease  to  respect  the  men  with 
whom  we  trained,  both  as  soldiers  and  gentle- 
men. We,  however,  were  trying  by  incessant 
work  to  overcome  the  handicap  of  ignorance 
with  which  we  had  started,  while  they  were 
out  of  the  line  for  a  rest  and  naturally  wished 
to  enjoy  themselves,  have  parties,  and  relax. 

At  one  time  we  tried  attaching  noncom- 
missioned officers  from  the  French  tmits  to 
ours.    We  hoped  we  could  accomplish  more 


Training  in  France  6i 

this  way.  It  did  not  work  well,  however, 
except  in  one  instance,  in  which  the  American 
company  became  so  fond  of  their  French 
"noncom.'*  that  they  did  their  level  best  to 
keep  him  with  them  for  the  rest  of  the  war. 

Toward  the  end  of  the  training  period, 
before  the  French  left  us,  we  had  a  sort  of 
official  party  for  both  our  troops  and  the 
French  troops.  It  was  held  on  our  drill 
grounds  and  everyone  had  chow.  The  men 
and  officers  really  enjoyed  this  affair.  Later 
we  gave  another  party  for  the  French  officers, 
who  came  and  lunched  with  us.  In  the  ath- 
letic sports  that  afternoon  we  experienced 
some  difficulty  with  the  middleweight  boxing 
because  Sergeant  Ross,  of  B  Company,  was 
so  much  the  best  boxer  that  we  could  find  no 
one  to  put  up  a  good  fight  against  him. 

Among  the  other  sports  was  a  "salad"  race, 
in  which  all  the  combatants  take  off  their 
shoes,  piling  them  in  the  center  of  a  circle. 
They  line  up  around  the  edges  and,  at  the 
word  "go,'*  run  forward,  try  to  find  their  own 
shoes,  put  them  on,  and  lace  them  up.    The 


62  Average  Americans 

man  who  first  does  this  wins.  Of  course,  the 
contestants  throw  each  other's  shoes  around, 
which  adds  to  the  general  mix-up,  with  the 
usual  comic  incidents.  During  the  meet  a 
lieutenant  rushed  up  to  me  before  the  tug  of 
war  was  to  be  staged,  terribly  excited,  ex- 
plaining that  the  best  men  in  his  company's 
team  for  a  tug  of  war  were  just  going  on 
guard.  I  hiuried  oiff  to  try  to  change  this  and 
succeeded  in  mixing  the  guard  up  to  such  an 
extent  that  it  took  the  better  part  of  a  day 
to  get  it  straightened  out  again. 

The  French  noncoms.  came  over  also  and 
dined  with  our  men,  and  one  day  all  of  us 
went  over  to  the  French  village  and  saw  their 
sports,  mule  races,  pole  vaulting,  etc.  Their 
officers'  messes  are  very  picturesque.  Every 
action  is  surrounded  by  custom.  They  rise 
in  their  snappy  blue  uniforms  and  sing  songs 
of  previous  battles  and  victories,  and  drink 
toasts  to  long-dead  leaders. 

It  was  at  this  time  we  developed  our  policy 
concerning  punishment.  Under  circumstances 
such  as  we  were  up  against  it  was  necessary 


Training  in  France  63 

to  be  severe,  for  the  good  of  all.  No  outfit 
but  had  the  same  percentage  of  offenders;  the 
draft  took  all  alike,  and  any  man  who  says  he 
had  no  punishments  in  his  command  is  either 
a  fool  or  a  liar.  We  always  considered,  how- 
ever, that  as  far  as  possible,  in  minor  offenses, 
it  was  better  to  avoid  court-martial.  The 
summary  court  if  much  used  indicates  a  poor 
or  lazy  commander.  Where  possible  we  al- 
ways handled  situations  as  follows:  Private 
Blank  is  ordered  to  take  his  full  pack  on  man- 
euvers, and  does  not.  His  C.  O.  notices  it  at 
a  halt.  No  charges  are  put  in  against  him  for 
disobedience  of  orders.  His  pack  is  opened 
then  and  there  and  nice,  well-selected  rocks 
are  put  in  to  take  the  place  of  the  missing 
blankets  and  shelter  half.  He  resumes  the 
march  with  these  on  his  back  and  has  to  keep 
up. 

One  cold  day  the  buglers,  who  are  supposed 
to  be  having  a  liaison  drill  while  the  rest  of  the 
brigade  are  maneuvering,  decide  to  sneak  off 
and  build  a  fire.  They  are  discovered,  and  then 
and  there  are  ordered  to  climb  to  the  top  of 


64  Average  Americans 

a  pine  tree,  where  they  are  made  to  bugle  in  a 
cold  wind  during  the  rest  of  the  morning. 

These  punishments  serve  two  purposes — 
first,  they  check  the  offender,  at  the  moment 
he  has  committed  the  breach  of  discipline, 
and  not  only  make  it  very  unpleasant  for  him, 
but  also  make  him  ridiculous  in  the  eyes  of 
the  other  men.  Second,  they  leave  no  stain 
on  his  record  and  let  him  keep  his  money. 

It  must  not  be  taken  from  the  above  that 
I  do  not  believe  court-martial  necessary,  for 
I  most  emphatically  do  in  many  cases.  You 
often  cannot  reach  constant  offenders  by  any 
other  method.  Also  such  offenses  as  "theft,** 
desertion,  and  serious  insubordination  can 
be  dealt  with  suitably  by  no  other  method. 
I  believe  in  keeping  all  cases  away  from  the 
court  when  possible,  but  I  also  beHeve,  when 
you  do  take  them  into  the  courts,  you  should 
punish  stringently. 

In  addition  to  the  nimierous  incidents  where 
too  severe  penalties  have  been  imposed,  there 
are  many  instances  of  unjustifiable  leniency. 
This  is  resented  by  all  alike.     I  remember  the 


Training  in  France  65 

comment  which  was  caused  among  all  ranks 
by  the  pardoning  of  men  convicted  of  having 
slept  on  their  posts.  This  pardoning  sounds 
pretty  and  humane  to  those  who  have  not 
been  in  the  fighting  line,  but  where  the  lives 
of  all  depend  on  the  vigilance  of  that  sentry, 
it  is  ''a  gray  horse  of  another  color.'' 


CHAPTER  V 

LIFE   IN  AN  ARMY  AREA 

'X'HE  billeting  of  the  men  was  a  problem. 
As  I  mentioned  before,  the  constitution  of 
the  United  States  forbids  billeting,  taking  as 
ground  for  this  action  that  when  soldiers  are 
placed  under  a  private  roof  constant  friction 
is  bound  to  arise.  In  Europe  the  masses  of 
troops  were  so  great  and  the  country  so  thickly- 
settled  that  this  method  of  caring  for  the 
soldiers  was  of  necessity  the  only  one  that 
could  be  adopted.  In  the  average  French 
farm  the  houses  have  big  bams  attached  to 
them.  In  the  barn  on  the  ground  floor  are 
the  pigs,  cows,  and  numberless  rabbits,  also 
farm  implements,  wagons,  and  the  like.  Up  a 
shaky  ladder,  which  had  been  doing  service 
for  generations,  is  the  hay-loft. 

66 


Life  in  an  Army  Area  67 

There,  among  the  hay,  the  soldiers  are  bil- 
leted and  sleep. 

When  we  first  came  over,  according  to  our 
best  army  traditions,  cots  were  brought  for  the 
men.  We  tried  to  fit  these  into  the  bams,  but 
soon  found  it  impossible,  and,  after  we  had  been 
there  a  certain  length  of  time,  we  turned  them 
all  in,  and  they  were  never  again  used  by  the 
troops.  Instead,  we  bought  hay  from  the 
natives,  spread  it  on  the  floor  of  the  loft,  and 
the  men  slept  on  it.  This  soimds  pleasant, 
but  it  isn't  as  pleasant  as  it  sounds.  It  is 
fairly  good  in  summer,  as  the  weather  is  warm, 
the  days  are  long,  and  the  bam  is  generally 
full  of  cracks,  which  let  in  the  air,  and  you 
can  get  along  quite  well  as  to  light.  When 
winter  comes,  however,  the  bams  are  freezing 
cold,  and  the  men,  after  their  hard  work  in 
the  rain,  come  back  soaking  wet.  It  gets  dark 
early,  and  the  sun  does  not  rise  until  late.  On 
account  of  the  hay  the  greatest  care  must  be 
used  with  lights.  Smoking  has  to  be  strictly 
forbidden.  You  have,  therefore,  at  the  end 
of  the  day  tired,  wet  men,  who  have  nowhere 


68  Average  Americans 

to  go  except  to  their  billets,  and  in  the  billets 
no  light  to  speak  of,  very  little  heat,  and  a 
strict  prohibition  against  smoking. 

The  officers,  of  cotirse,  fared  better.  They 
slept  in  the  houses,  and  generally  got  beds. 
Europeans  do  not  like  fresh  air.  They  feel 
a  good  deal  like  the  gentleman  in  Stephen 
Leacock's  story,  who  said  he  liked  fresh  air, 
and  believed  you  should  open  the  windows 
and  get  in  all  you  could.  Then  you  should 
shut  the  windows  and  keep  it  there.  It  would 
keep  for  years. 

I  have  been  in  many  rooms  where  the  win- 
dows were  nailed  shut.  The  beds  also  are 
rather  remarkable.  They  are  generally  fitted 
with  feather  mattresses  and  feather  quilts. 
Very  often  they  are  arranged  in  a  niche  in  the 
wall  like  a  closet,  and  have  two  doors,  which 
the  average  European,  after  getting  into  the 
bed,  closes,  thereby  rendering  it  about  as  airy 
and  well  ventilated  as  a  coffin. 

I  remember  my  own  billet  in  one  of  the 
towns  where  we  stopped.  As  I  was  command- 
ing officer,  it  was  one  of  the  best  and  was 


Life  in  an  Army  Area  69 

reasonably  warm.  It  was  warm  because  the 
barnyard  was  next  door,  literally  in  the  next 
room,  as  all  that  separated  me  from  a  cow 
was  a  light  deal  door  by  the  side  of  the  bed. 
The  cow  was  tied  to  the  door.  When  the 
cow  slept  I  slept;  but  if  the  cow  passed  a 
restless  night  I  had  all  the  opportunity  I 
needed  to  think  over  my  past  sins  and  future 
plans.  In  another  town  an  excellent  billet 
was  not  used  by  the  officers  because  over  the 
bed  were  hung  photographs  of  all  the  various 
persons  who  had  died  in  the  house,  taken  while 
they  lay  dead  in  that  bed. 

Human  nature  is  the  same  the  world  over, 
and  we  became  very  fond  of  some  of  the  per- 
sons with  whom  we  were  billeted,  while  others 
stole  everything  that  was  left  loose.  One 
hoary  old  sinner,  with  whom  I  lived,  quite 
endeared  herself  to  me  by  her  evident  sim- 
plicity and  her  gentleness  of  manner,  until  I 
discovered  one  day  that,  under  the  aegis  of  the 
commanding  officer  billeting  there,  she  was 
illicitly  selling  cognac  to  the  soldiers. 

The  struggle  of  certain  sergeants  with  some 


70  Average  Americans 

of  these  French  inhabitants  concerning  the 
neatness  of  their  various  company  kitchens 
or  billets  always  amused  me.  I  remember 
a  feud  in  one  village  which  was  carried  on 
between  a  little  Frenchwoman  and  a  ser- 
geant called  Murphy.  Sergeant  Murphy  liked 
everything  spick  and  span.  The  French  wo- 
man had  lived  all  her  life  where  things  were 
not,  to  put  it  mildly,  according  to  Sergeant 
Murphy's  army-trained  idea  of  sanitation. 
The  rock  that  they  finally  split  on  was  the 
question  of  tin  cans,  old  boxes,  and  egg-shells 
in  front  of  Sergeant  Murphy's  kitchen.  I 
shall  never  forget  coming  around  a  corner  and 
seeing  Sergeant  Murphy,  tall  and  dignified, 
the  Frenchwoman  small  and  voluble,  facing 
one  another  in  front  of  his  kitchen,  she  chat- 
tering French  without  a  break  and  he  saying 
with  great  dignity,  '*  Ma'am,  it  is  outrage- 
ous. It  is  the  third  time  to-day  that  this 
stuff  has  been  taken  away.  I  shall  throw 
it  in  your  back  yard."  He  did,  and  next 
morning  the  conflict  was  joined  again.  Al- 
though Murphy  kept  up  the  struggle  nobly. 


Life  in  an  Army  Area  71 

no  impression  was  made  on  the  French- 
woman. 

Most  generally,  in  France,  the  small  French 
village  contains  about  one  battalion  of  in- 
fantry. As  a  result,  the  battalion  commander 
is  post  commander,  and  to  him  all  the  woes  of 
the  various  inhabitants  as  well  as  the  troubles 
of  his  own  troops  come.  One  complaint  which 
filled  me  with  delight  was  made  by  a  French- 
woman. The  basis  of  the  complaint  was  that 
my  men,  by  laughing  and  talking  in  her  bam, 
prevented  her  sheep  and  pigs  from  getting  a 
proper  amount  of  sleep. 

A  constantly  recurring  source  of  trouble 
were  the  rabbits.  The  rabbits  in  all  French 
country  families  are  a  sort  of  Lares  and  Pe- 
nates. You  find  them  in  hutches  around 
the  houses,  wandering  in  the  bams,  hopping 
about  the  kitchens,  and,  last  but  by  no  means 
least,  in  savory  stews.  I  don't  maintain  for 
a  moment  that  none  of  my  men  ever  took  a 
rabbit;  I  simply  maintain  that  it  would  be  a 
physical  impossibility  for  these  men  to  have 
eaten  the  ntimber  of  rabbits  they  were  accused 


72  Average  Americans 

of  eating.  Every  little  while  in  each  town 
some  peasant  would  come  before  me  with  a 
complaint,  the  gist  of  which  was  that  the  men 
had  eaten  a  dozen  or  so  rabbits.  With  great 
dignity  I  would  say  that  I  would  have  the 
matter  investigated.  The  man  would  then 
suggest  that  I  come  and  count  the  rabbits 
in  the  village,  so  that  I  would  know  if  any 
were  missing.  I  would  explain  in  my  best 
French  that  from  a  long  and  accurate  know- 
ledge of  rabbits,  gathered  through  years 
when,  as  a  boy,  I  kept  them  in  quantities, 
counting  rabbits  one  day  did  not  mean  that 
there  would  be  the  same  number  the  next 
day. 

Eventually  we  adopted  the  scheme  of  mak- 
ing some  officer  claim  adjuster.  After  this 
it  was  smooth  sailing  for  me.  I  simply  would 
tell  the  mayor  that  Lieutenant  Barrett  would 
adjust  the  matter  under  dispute,  and  from 
then  on  Lieutenant  Barrett  battled  with  the 
aggrieved.  He  told  me  once  he  thought  he 
was  going  to  be  murdered  by  a  little  woman, 
who  kept  an  inn,  over  a  log  of  wood  that  the 


Life  in  an  Army  Area  73 

men  had  used  for  the  company  kitchen. 
Several  times  persons  offered  to  go  shares 
with  him  on  what  he  was  able  to  get  for  them 
from  the  government. 

In  this  part  of  France  there  was  quite  a 
little  wild  life.  Sail-winged  hawks  were  con- 
stantly soaring  over  the  meadows.  Coveys 
of  European  partridges  were  quite  plentiful. 
Among  the  other  birds  the  magpie  and  the 
skylark  were  the  most  noticeable,  the  former 
ubiquitous  with  his  flamboyant  contrast  of 
black  and  white,  the  latter  a  constant  source 
of  delight,  with  clear  song  and  graceful  spirals. 
The  largest  wild  animal  was  the  boar.  There 
were  quite  a  number  of  these  throughout  the 
woods.  As  a  rule,  they  were  not  large,  and 
there  was,  so  far  as  I  could  find  out,  no  attempt 
made  to  preserve  them.  We  would  scare 
them  up  while  maneuvering.  They  are  good 
eating,  and  occasionally  we  would  organize  a 
hunt.  The  French  Daniel  Boone,  of  BovioUes, 
was  a  delightful  old  fellow.  When  going  on 
a  hunt  he  would  put  on  a  bright  blue  coat, 
a  green  hat,  and  sling  a  silver  horn  over  his 


74  Average  Americans 

shoulders,  resembling  for  all  the  world  the 
huntsman  in  Slovenly  Peter. 

During  August  a  nimiber  of  the  field  officers 
were  sent  on  their  first  trip  to  the  trenches. 
I  was  among  them.  We  went  by  truck  to 
Nancy,  a  charming  little  city,  known  as  the 
Paris  of  northern  France.  At  this  time  the 
Huns  had  not  started  their  air  raids  on  it, 
which  drove  much  of  the  population  away  and 
reduced  the  railroad  station  to  ruins.  Roimd 
it  cling  many  historic  memories ;  near  by  was 
fought  the  battle  between  Charles  the  Bold, 
of  Burgundy,  and  Louis  XI,  in  which  feudal- 
ism was  struck  its  death  blow;  on  the  hills 
to  the  north  the  Kaiser  stood  at  the  com- 
mencement of  this  war,  when  the  German 
troops  were  flowing  over  France,  seemingly 
resistless. 

From  Nancy  we  went  to  the  Pont-a-Mousson 
sector,  where  we  spent  a  day  with  French 
officers  of  the  corresponding  grade.  This  was 
a  rest  sector,  and  there  was  little  to  indicate 
that  war  was  raging.  Occasionally  a  shell 
would  whistle  over,  and  if  you  exposed  your- 


Life  in  an  Army  Area  75 

self  too  much  some  Hun  might  take  a  shot  at 
you  with  a  rifle. 

Pont-a-Mousson,  the  little  French  village, 
was  literally  in  the  French  front  lines,  and  yet 
a  busy  life  was  going  on  there.  There  I 
bought  cigarettes,  and  aroimd  the  arcade  of 
the  central  square  business  was  much  as  usual. 
A  bridge  spanned  the  river  right  by  the  town, 
where  everyone  crossing  was  in  plain  view  of 
the  Germans.  The  French  officers  explained 
to  me  that  so  long  as  only  small  parties  crossed 
by  it  the  Germans  paid  no  attention,  but  if 
columns  of  troops  or  trucks  used  it  shelling 
started  at  once.  In  the  same  way  the  French 
did  not  shell,  except  under  exceptional  cir- 
cumstances, the  villages  in  the  German  forward 
area. 

On  a  high  hill  overlooking  Pont-^-Mousson 
were  the  ruins  of  an  old  castle  built  by  the 
De  Guises.  In  old  days  it  was  the  key  to  the 
ford  where  the  bridge  now  stands.  It  was 
being  used  as  an  observation  post  by  the 
French.  I  crawled  up  into  its  ivy-draped, 
crumbling   tower,   and  through  a   telescope 


76  Average  Americans 

looked  far  back  of  the  German  lines,  where  I 
saw  the  enemy  troops  training  in  open  order 
and  two  German  officers  on  horseback  super- 
intending. 

In  the  trenches  where  the  soldiers  were  there 
were  vermin  and  rats  and  mud  to  the  waist. 
There  I  made  my  first  acquaintance  with  the 
now  justly  famous  ''cootie.*' 

During  this  night  I  went  on  my  first  patrol. 
No  Man's  Land  was  very  broad,  and  deep  fields 
of  wire  surrounded  the  trenches.  The  patrol 
finished  without  incident.  The  only  casualty 
in  the  vicinity  while  I  was  on  this  front  was  a 
partridge,  which  was  hit  on  the  head  by  a 
fragment  of  shell,  and  which  the  French  major 
and  I  ate  for  dinner  and  enjoyed  very  much. 
We  returned  to  our  training  area  by  the  same 
way  we  came.  The  principal  knowledge  we 
had  gained  besides  general  atmosphere  was 
relative  to  the  feeding  of  men  in  trenches. 

These  were  the  primitive  days  of  our  army 
in  France.  We  being  the  first  troops  who  had 
arrived,  received  a  very  large  proportion  of  the 
attention  of  General  Pershing  and  his  staff. 


Life  in  an  Army  Area  77 

The  General  once  came  out  to  look  over  the 
Twenty-sixth  Infantry,  and  stopped  in  front 
of  the  redoubtable  Sergeant  Murphy  and  his 
platoon.  Now,  Sergeant  Murphy  could  stand 
with  equanimity  as  high  an  officer  as  a  colonel, 
but  a  general  was  one  too  many.  He  was  not 
afraid  of  a  machine  gun  or  a  cannon,  but  a 
star  on  a  man*s  shoulder  petrified  him.  After 
the  General  had  watched  for  a  minute,  the  good 
sergeant  had  his  platoon  tied  up  in  thirteen 
different  ways.  The  General  spoke  to  him. 
That  finished  it ;  and  if  the  General  had  not 
left  the  field,  I  think  Sergeant  Murphy  would 
have. 

With  all  of  us  comic  incidents  in  plenty 
occurred.  Our  most  notable  characteristic 
was  our  seriousness,  and,  running  it  a  close 
second,  our  ignorance.  I  remember  one  sol- 
emn private  who  threw  a  hand  grenade  from 
his  place  in  the  trench.  It  hit  the  edge  of  the 
parapet  and  dropped  back  again.  He  looked 
at  it,  remarked  "Lord  God,"  slipped  in  the 
mud,  and  sat  down  on  it  just  as  it  exploded. 
Fortunately  for  him  it  was  one  of  the  light, 


78  Average  Americans 

tin-covered  grenades,  and  beyond  making 
sitting  down  an  almost  impossible  action  for 
him  for  several  days  following  he  was  com- 
paratively undamaged.  Often  the  comic  was 
tinged  with  the  tragic.  We  had  men  who  en- 
deavored to  open  grenades  with  a  rock,  with 
the  usual  disastrous  effects  to  all. 

Once  Sergeant  O'Rourke  was  training  his 
men  in  throwing  hand  grenades.  I  came  up 
and  watched  them  a  minute.  They  were 
doing  very  well,  and  I  called,  ''Sergeant,  your 
men  are  throwing  these  grenades  excellently.'* 
O'Rourke  evidently  felt  there  was  danger  of 
turning  their  heads  by  too  much  praise. 
''Sor-r-r,  that  and  sleep  is  all  they  can  do 
well,"  he  replied. 

In  order  to  get  the  men  trained  with  the 
rifle,  as  we  had  no  target  material,  we  used 
tin  cans  and  rocks.  A  tin  can  is  a  particu- 
larly good  target;  it  makes  such  a  nice  noise 
when  hit,  and  leaps  about  so.  I  liked  to  shoot 
at  them  myself,  and  could  well  understand 
why  they  pleased  the  soldiers. 

Why  more  persons  were  not  killed  in  our 


BEFORE     THE     OFFENSIVE 

Drawn  by  Captain  W.  J.  Aylward,  A.  E.  F. 


Life  in  an  Army  Area  79 

practice  I  don't  know,  as  the  whole  division 
was  in  training  in  a  Hmited  space,  all  having 
rifle  practice,  with  no  possibility  of  construct- 
ing satisfactory  ranges. 

Some  officers  in  another  unit  organized  a 
rifle  range  in  such  a  position  that  the  overs 
dropped  gently  where  we  were  training.  One 
eventually  hit  my  horse,  but  did  not  do  much 
damage. 

Lieutenant  Lyman  S.  Frazier,  an  excellent 
officer,  who  finished  the  war  as  major  of  in- 
fantry, commanded  the  machine-gun  company 
of  my  battalion.  He  was  very  keen  on  indi- 
rect fire,  but  we  could  get  little  or  no  informa- 
tion on  it.  One  evening,  however,  he  grouped 
his  guns,  made  his  calculations  as  well  as  he 
could,  and  then  fired  a  regular  barrage.  As 
soon  as  the  demonstration  was  over  he  gal- 
loped out  as  fast  as  he  could  to  the  target,  and 
found  to  his  chagrin  that  only  one  shot  had 
hit.  Where  the  other  10,000  odd  went  we 
never  knew. 

We  had  many  incidents  that  were  really 
humorous  with  the  men  in  the  guard  moimt. 


8o  Average  Americans 

A  young  fellow,  named  Cobb,  who  lost  his  leg 
later  in  the  war,  was  standing  guard  early  in 
his  military  career.  A  French  girl  passed  him 
in  the  dark.  He  challenged,  ''Who  is  there?" 
She  replied,  ''Qu'est-ce  qu'il  dit?''  Young 
Cobb  didn*t  know  French,  but  he  did  know 
that  when  in  doubt  on  any  subject  you  called 
the  corporal  of  the  guard.  So  he  shouted  at 
the  top  of  his  voice,  ''Corporal  of  the  guard, 
queskidee!'' 

We  emphasized  the  manual  of  formal  guard 
mount  as  a  disciplinary  exercise.  One  of  the 
regulations  is  that  when  the  ranking  officer 
in  a  post  passes  the  guardhouse,  the  sentry 
calls,  "Turn  out  the  guard — commanding 
officer,"  and  the  guard  is  paraded.  We  had 
lived  so  long  by  ourselves  that  although  we 
sometimes  had  the  colonel  in  the  same  town, 
when  we  were  in  the  Montdidier  sector,  I  never 
could  persuade  them  to  pay  any  attention  to 
him.  They  had  it  firmly  rooted  in  their  minds 
that  the  ceremony  was  forme  and  no  one  else. 

Occasionally  a  German  airplane  would  come 
over  and  bomb  the  towns  in  the  area.    This 


Life  in  an  Army  Area  8i 

furnished  a  real  element  of  excitement,  as  we 
had  anti-aircraft  guns  set  up.  The  one 
trouble  was  that  we  could  not  tell  at  night 
which  was  a  German  and  which  was  a  French 
plane,  with  the  result  that  if  we  should  happen 
to  hit  one  it  was  as  likely  that  we  would  hit  a 
French  one  as  not.  We  were  saved  this  em- 
barrassment by  never  hitting  one.  Later,  in 
the  Montdidier  sector,  I  remember  hearing 
how,  in  a  burst  of  enthusiasm,  the  gun  crew  of 
one  of  our  75's  had  fired  at  an  airplane,  and  by 
some  remarkable  coincidence  had  torn  a  wing 
off  and  brought  it  down.  On  rushing  out  to 
inspect  it  they  found  it  contained  a  very 
irascible  Frenchman. 


CHAPTER  VI 

EARLY  DAYS  IN  THE  TRENCHES 

"How  strange  a  spectacle  of  human  passions 
Is  yours  all  day  beside  the  Arras  road, 
What  mournful  men  concerned  about  their  rations 
When  here  at  eve  the  limbers  leave  their  load, 
What  twilight  blasphemy,  what  horses*  feet 
Entangled  with  the  meat. 
What  sudden  hush  when  that  machine  gun  sweeps 

And  flat  as  possible  for  men  so  round 
The  quartermasters  may  be  seen  in  heaps, 
While  you  sit  by  and  chuckle,  I'll  be  bound." 

A.  P.  H.  (Punch). 

P  ARLY  in  October  mysterious  orders  reached 

us  to  spend  forty-eight  hours  in  some 

trenches  we  had  dug  on  top  of  a  hill  close  to 

the  village,  simulating  actual  conditions  as  well 

as  we  could.     At  the  same  time  a  battalion  of 

each  of  the  other  three  infantry  regiments  were 

similarly  instructed.     The  orders  were  so  well 

worked  out  that  we  were  convinced  at  once 

82 


Early  Days  in  the  Trenches      83 

that  we  were  to  go  in  the  near  future  to  the 
front.  Everyone  was  in  a  high  state  of  ex- 
citement, and  very  happy  that  we  were  at  last 
to  see  action. 

The  hilltop  where  we  were  to  stay  was 
covered  by  the  remains  of  an  old  Roman 
camp,  commanding  the  two  forks  of  the 
stream.  We  marched  up  the  following  day 
over  the  remains  of  the  old  Roman  road,  and 
passed  our  last  short  period  training  to  meet 
the  barbarians  of  the  north,  where  Caesar's 
legions,  nearly  two  thousand  years  ago,  trained 
for  the  same  purpose.  Many  features  were 
lacking  from  the  trenches  on  the  hill,  such  as 
dugouts,  for  example,  but  we  felt  we  could 
get  along  without  them,  and  everything  went 
happily  and  serenely  the  first  day. 

We  had  the  rolling  kitchens  and  hospitals 
placed  on  the  reverse  slope  in  the  woods. 
Carrying  parties  brought  the  chow  along  a 
trench  traced  with  white  tape  to  the  troops, 
and  they  ate  it  without  leaving  their  posi- 
tions. During  the  evening,  however,  "sunny 
France"  had  a  relapse,   and  a  terrific  rain- 


84  Average  Americans 

storm  came  on.  It  was  bitterly  cold,  and  a 
high  wind  swept  the  hilltop.  We  were  all 
soaked  to  the  skin. 

The  men  either  huddled  against  the  side 
of  a  trench  or  stretched  their  ponchos  from 
parapet  to  parapet,  and  sat  beneath  them  in 
a  foot-deep  puddle  of  water.  In  making  in- 
spection I  passed  by  a  number  of  them  that 
night  who  looked  as  if  they  were  perfectly 
willing  to  have  the  war  end  right  then. 

The  company  in  reserve  was  occupying  the 
territory  around  the  old  Roman  wall.  They 
had  dug  some  holes  in  it,  and  crawled  into 
them  to  keep  as  near  dry  as  possible.  Splen- 
did so  far  as  it  went,  but  nearly  disastrous, 
for  a  message  reached  me  saying  that  a  first 
sergeant,  the  company  commander,  the  sec- 
ond in  command  and  the  company  clerk  had 
all  been  buried  by  a  cave-in.  I  ran  back 
to  see  about  them  and  found  that  they  had 
been  extricated,  and  looked  like  animated 
mud-pies. 

One  company  commander  during  the  middle 
of  the  second  day  started  his  men  digging 


Early  Days  in  the  Trenches      85 

trenches  as  deep  as  they  could,  so  that  at 
night  when  the  rain  started  again  and  the 
cold  wind  blew  up  the}''  would  have  some 
place  to  stay.  They  dug  vigorously  all  day, 
but  by  night,  when  the  rain  came  down  in 
torrents  again,  the  trenches  filled  up  like 
bath-tubs,  and  they  had  to  sit  on  the  edge. 

After  the  maneuvers  we  received  definite 
orders  that  we  were  to  go  to  the  front.  The 
equipment  was  checked  and  verified,  and  every- 
thing put  in  apple-pie  order.  The  trucks 
arrived;  we  got  in  and  started,  all  of  us  feeling 
that  now  at  last  we  were  to  be  real  warriors. 
All  day  long  the  truck  train,  stretching  out 
along  the  road,  jolted  forward  in  a  cloud  of 
dust.  Toward  evening  we  began  to  pass 
through  the  desolated  area  over  which  the 
Hun  had  swept  in  19 14,  and  about  five  o'clock 
we  detrucked  at  a  little  town  about  fourteen 
miles  behind  the  lines. 

Here  we  stayed  a  couple  of  days,  while 
our  reconnoitering  details  went  forward  and 
familiarized  themselves  with  the  position. 
On  the  evening  of  the  second  day  the  troops 


86  Average  Americans 

started  forward.  As  usual,  it  was  raining  cats 
and  dogs,  and  our  principal  duty  during  the  ten 
days  we  spent  in  the  sector  was  shoveling  mud 
the  color  and  consistency  of  melted  chocolate 
ice  cream  from  cave-ins  which  constantly  oc- 
curred in  the  trench  system. 

We  were  all  very  green  and  very  earnest. 
The  machine-gun  company  arrived,  bringing 
all  its  ammunition  on  the  gun  carts.  The 
guns  were  uncased  and  the  carts  sent  to  the 
rear  with  ammunition  still  on  them,  leaving 
the  guns  with  hardly  a  round.  Only  about 
five  or  ten  shells  were  fired  daily  by  the  Ger- 
man artillery  against  the  portion  of  line  we 
occupied.  One  man  was  hit,  our  signal 
officer.  Lieutenant  Hardon,  his  wound  being 
very  slight.  The  adjutant,  when  this  hap- 
pened, ran  to  tell  me,  and  we  both  went  down 
and  solemnly  congratulated  Hardon  on  having 
the  honor  to  be  the  first  American  officer  hit 
while  serving  with  American  troops. 

A  number  of  ambitious  members  of  the  in- 
telligence group  sniped  busily  at  the  German 
trenches.     These  were  about  a  mile  away,  and 


Early  Days  in  the  Trenches      87 

though  they  reported  heavy  casualties  among 
the  enemy,  I  believe  that  the  wish  was  father 
to  the  thought. 

The  French  were  on  our  right,  and  we  had 
some  very  ftmny  times  with  them.  One 
officer  of  mine  was  coming  in  after  inspecting 
the  wire  and  ran  into  one  of  their  sentries. 

''Qui  est  la?"  called  the  sentry. 

My  officer  then  gave  in  his  best  American 
what  he  had  been  told  was  the  French  pass- 
word. This  was  incomprehensible  to  the 
Frenchman,  who  immediately  replied  by  firing 
his  rifle  at  him.  The  officer  jumped  up  and 
down  and  gave  the  password  again.  Blam 
went  the  Frenchman's  rifle  the  second  time. 
Nothing  but  the  fact  that  the  Frenchman 
regarded  the  rifle  more  as  a  lead  squirt  rather 
than  a  weapon  of  accuracy  prevented  him 
from  being  hit.  The  officer  eventually  got 
through  by  shouting  repeatedly  at  the  top 
of  his  voice,  "Vive  les  Americains!" 

At  the  end  of  the  ten  days  we  were  relieved 
and  hiked  back  veteran  troops,  as  we  thought, 
to  the  training  area.     Our  medical  depart- 


88  Average  Americans 

ment,  not  the  department  with  the  troops, 
but  our  higher  medical  department,  which 
dealt  with  papers  rather  than  facts,  sent  at 
this  time  a  letter  which  I  would  give  a  lot  to 
have  now  simply  as  a  humorous  doctiment. 
It  was  headed  ''General  Order  — ."  It  had 
at  the  top  as  subject — ''  Pediculi/'  Pediculi  is 
the  polite  medical  name  for  lice.  We  were 
instructed  in  the  body  that  immediately  on 
leaving  the  trenches  all  men  were  to  be 
inspected  completely  by  the  medical  officer 
before  they  were  allowed  to  go  to  their  billets. 
This  involved  the  inspection  by  the  medical 
officer  of  some  one  thousand  men.  It  further- 
more necessitated  the  inspection  of  these  one 
thousand  men  between  two  and  five  in  the 
morning,  in  the  dark.  The  order  went  on  to 
say  that  where  pediculi  were  present  all  clothes 
were  to  be  confiscated,  finishing  with  the  brief 
and  bland  statement  that  thereupon  new 
clothes  were  to  be  furnished  throughout. 
This  to  us,  who  had  not  had  new  clothes  since 
we  reached  France,  to  whom  every  garment 
was  a  valuable  possession  that  could  not  be 


Early  Days  in  the  Trenches      89 

replaced!  However,  we  have  no  doubt  that 
the  medical  officer  felt  that  he  had  done  some- 
thing splendid,  and  what  is  more,  his  paper 
record  was  perfect  in  that,  although  what  he 
demanded  was  impossible,  he  had  put  it  on 
paper,  and,  therefore,  someone  else  was  to 
blame  for  not  carrying  it  out. 

Our  first  Christmas  in  France  was  spent  in 
the  usual  little  French  village.  The  men  had 
raised  a  fund  to  be  used  for  the  purpose  of 
giving  a  Christmas  tree  to  the  refugee  children 
living  in  the  vicinity,  as  well  as  the  native 
children.  It  was  the  first  Christmas  tree  that 
the  village  had  seen  and  excitement  was 
intense.  The  festivities  were  held  in  a  mess 
shack,  and  to  them  came  nearly  the  entire 
population,  though  I  gave  instructions  to  be 
sure  that  the  children  were  taken  care  of  before 
the  ''grown-ups.*'  The  enlisted  men  ran  the 
festivities  themselves. 

Flickering  candle-light  cast  shadows  over 
Christmas  greens  and  mistletoe  and  the 
rough  boards  of  the  shack.  A  buzzing  mass 
of  French  children  and  adults  crowded  around 


90  Average  Americans 

the  tree,  and  lean,  weather-beaten  American 
sergeants  gave  out  the  presents.  There  were 
the  usual  horns  and  crackers,  and  in  a  few 
minutes  pandemonium  had  broken  loose. 
The  cure  was  there,  and  the  mayor,  dressed 
in  an  antediluvian  frock  coat  and  top  hat- 
These  two,  at  a  given  signal,  succeeded  in 
partially  stilling  the  tumult  by  making  an 
equal  noise  themselves,  and  a  little  girl  and 
boy  appeared  with  a  large  bouquet  for  me. 
First  they  made  a  little  speech  in  French, 
looking  as  cunning  as  possible.  Each  time 
they  said  "Mon  Commandant"  they  made  a 
funny  little  bow.  After  giving  me  the  bou- 
quet the  Httle  girl  kissed  me.  Then  the  mayor 
spoke.  Warned  by  the  little  girFs  action,  I 
fended  him  off  with  the  bouquet  when  he 
showed  a  tendency  to  become  affectionate. 
I  then  answered  in  my  best  French,  which 
I  alone  understood,  and  the  festivities 
finished. 

Later  in  the  evening  the  men  gave  a  show, 
which  they  had  arranged  themselves.  It  was 
really  very  good.    Sergeant  Frank  Ross  was 


Early  Days  in  the  Trenches      91 

principally  responsible,  ably  assisted  by  Pri- 
vates Cooper,  Neary,  and  Smith.  The  htimor 
was  local  soldier  hiimor  and  absolutely  clean. 
For  instance,  the  men  always  march  with 
their  extra  pair  of  shoes  strapped  on  the  out- 
side of  the  pack.  One  man  on  the  stage  would 
say  to  the  other:  *'  Say,  Buddy,  I  call  my  pack 
my  little  O.  D.  baby.  It  wears  shoes  the 
same  size  as  mine,  and  I  can't  get  the  son  of  a 
gun  to  walk  a  step." 

During  the  play  the  sergeant  of  the  guard 
came  in  to  me  and  said,  "Sir,  there  has  been 
a  little  disturbance.  Sergeant  Withis  of  B 
Company  says  C  Company  men  have  been 
picking  on  him;  but,  sir,  there  are  three  C 
Company  men  at  the  infirmary  and  Withis 
is  all  right." 

The  day,  however,  on  the  whole,  was  a  suc- 
cess and  it  speaks  well  for  the  men,  for  of  all 
the  Christmas  dinner  that  our  papers  talked 
so  much  about,  practically  nothing  but  a  few 
nuts  and  raisins  reached  us. 

One  old  regular  sergeant  of  C  Company, 
Baird  by  name,  discovered  at  this  time  a 


92  Average  Americans 

novel  use  for  the  gas  mask.  The  old  fellow 
had  been  in  service  for  many  years,  and 
though  a  fine  and  gallant  soldier,  he  was  long 
past  his  prime  physically.  He  always  re- 
minded me  of  Kipling*s  description  of  Akela 
the  gray  wolf,  when  he  says  that  ''Akela  was 
very  old  and  gray,  and  he  walked  as  though  he 
were  made  of  wood/'  Baird  was  a  great  man 
on  paper  work,  and  believed  in  having  his 
company  files  in  tiptop  shape.  Facilities  were 
a  little  poor.  One  bitter  day  he  tried  to  make 
some  reports.  First  he  tried  in  the  bam, 
where  his  hands  became  so  cold  he  couldn't 
write.  Then  he  tried  in  the  kitchen,  and  his 
eyes  got  so  full  of  smoke  he  couldn't  see.  At 
last  we  found  him  sitting  in  the  kitchen  with 
his  gas  mask  on  making  his  reports,  writing  in 
comfort. 

We  were  joined  at  this  time  by  Major  Atkins 
of  the  Salvation  Army,  an  exceptionally  fine 
character.  He  stayed  with  us  during  most  of 
the  time  we  were  in  Europe.  He  was  cour- 
ageous under  fire,  felt  that  where  the  men  went 
he  wished  to  go,  and  was  a  splendid  influence 


Early  Days  in  the  Trenches      93 

with  them.  Whatever  he  could  do  he  always 
did  with  a  whole  heart. 

Before  the  war  I  felt  that  the  Salvation 
Army  was  composed  of  a  well-meaning  lot  of 
cranks.  Now  what  help  I  can  give  them  is 
theirs.  My  feelings  are  well  illustrated  by  a 
conversation  I  overheard  between  two  soldiers. 
One  said,  ''Say,  Bill,  before  this  war  I  used 
to  think  it  good  fun  to  kid  the  Salvation 
Army.  Now  I'll  bust  any  feller  on  the  bean 
with  a  brick  if  I  see  him  botherin'  them." 

Early  in  January  we  were  told  that  replace- 
ments were  arriving  to  bring  up  our  companies 
to  250  in  strength.  When  the  men  arrived  we 
planned  to  be  there  on  time  to  get  our  fair 
share.  Two  old  sergeants,  Studal  and  Shultz, 
went  down  and  helped  pick  the  recruits,  work- 
ing from  detachment  to  detachment  trying  to 
shift  the  best  material  into  our  detail.  The 
men  were,  on  the  whole,  a  fine  lot,  but  their 
knowledge  of  military  matters  was  absolutely 
nil.  A  large  percentage  had  never  shot  any 
firearms,  and  still  a  larger  percentage  had 
never  shot  the  service  rifle.     One  man  turned 


94  Average  Americans 

up  with  a  service  record  on  which  was  nothing 
except  "Mennonite,  objects  to  bearing  arms/' 
Incidentally  he  made  an  excellent  soldier,  and 
was  killed  while  fighting  gallantly  near  Mont- 
didier.  Another  man  had  partial  paralysis  of 
one  side.  When  the  medical  officer  asked 
him  if  he  had  been  examined  before  he  said, 
"No,  sir;  just  drafted."  Still  another  had  an 
arm  so  stiffened  that  he  could  hardly  bend  his 
elbow.  When  the  medical  officer  tried  to 
send  him  to  the  rear  he  protested.  We  let 
him  stay.  He  became  an  automatic  rifle 
gunner,  and  was  later  killed. 

One  westerner,  from  Montana  I  believe, 
called  Blalock,  finished  the  war  as  first  ser- 
geant in  Company  D,  after  a  very  distin- 
guished record.  Another  young  fellow,  Aug 
by  name,  was  a  real  estate  man  from  Sacra- 
mento. I  noticed  him  first  when  he  was 
detailed  as  my  orderly.  Later  he  was  cited 
for  gallantry  twice,  and  eventually  sent  to  the 
officers'  school,  where  he  got  a  commission, 
and  asked  to  be  returned  to  the  fighting  troops. 
He  fell  in  action  just  before  the  armistice. 


Early  Days  In  the  Trenches      95 

Private  ''Bill"  Margeas  was  a  Greek  who 
came  with  this  lot.  He  was  shot  through  the 
chest  at  Montdidier,  and  later  ran  away  from 
the  hospital  and  got  back  before  Soissons. 
He  came  in  to  report  to  me.  I  had  been  near 
him  when  he  had  been  hit  before. 

''Margeas,"  I  said,  "you're  in  no  shape 
to  carry  a  pack." 

"No,  sir,"  said  he,  "but  I  can  carry  a  rifle 
all  right." 

He  was  killed  later  in  the  Argonne. 

Two  Chinamen,  Young  and  Chew,  drafted 
from  San  Francisco,  were  also  in  this  lot. 
They  were  with  my  headquarters  all  during 
the  war. 

These  replacements  had  absolutely  no  con- 
ception of  military  etiquette.  They  wanted 
to  do  what  was  right,  but  they  didn't  know 
anything.  When  one  man  from  a  western 
National  Guard  regiment — incidentally  he  was 
a  German  by  birth — came  up  to  me  with  a 
message  from  his  company  commander,  he 
would  always  begin  with,  "Say."  One  time  I 
asked  him  when  he  was  born  and  he  told 


96  Average  Americans 

me  in  1848,  which  impressed  me  as  being  a 
slight  overstatement.  Subsequent  investi- 
gation proved  that  1878  was  the  year.  Inci- 
dentally he  fought  very  gallantly,  and  was 
fortunate  enough  to  get  through  the  war, 
being  with  the  regiment  when  I  left  it  in 
Germany. 

One  huge  fellow  called  Swanson,  from  North 
Dakota,  turned  up.  Swanson  was  a  fine 
soldier  in  every  way,  but  the  government  had 
not  figured  on  a  man  of  Swanson's  size.  Never 
when  he  was  in  my  command  were  we  able  to 
get  a  blouse  to  fit  him.  He  turned  out  on 
parade,  went  to  the  trenches,  and  appeared  on 
all  other  occasions  in  a  ragged  brown  sweater. 

Some  of  the  men  we  got  could  not  speak 
English.  One  squad  in  particular  we  had 
to  form  in  such  a  fashion  that  the  corporal 
could  act  as  interpreter.  Once  turning  around 
a  comer  I  came  upon  a  group  of  four  or  five 
soldiers.  All  of  them  except  one  saluted 
properly.  He  merely  grinned  in  a  good- 
natured,  friendly  fashion.  I  started  to  read 
him  the  riot  act,  asking  why  he  thought  he 


Early  Days  in  the  Trenches       97 

was  different  from  the  rest  of  the  men,  what 
he  meant  by  it,  did  he  put  himself  in  a  class  by 
himself,  and  so  forth.  About  half  way  through 
one  of  the  other  men  interrupted  me. 

''Sir,"  he  said,  ''that  guy  there  he  don't 
understand  English."  We  found  someone 
who  could  speak  his  language,  had  the  matter 
explained  to  him,  and  found  it  was  simply  that 
he  did  not  understand.  He  wanted  to  do 
what  was  right  and  he  wanted  to  play  the 
game. 

These  replacements  had  very  long  hair  and 
looked  very  shabby.  One  of  the  first  things 
we  did  was  to  have  their  hair  cut.  There 
are  many  reasons  why  troops  should  keep 
their  hair  cut.  It  looks  neater  for  one  thing, 
but,  far  more  important,  it  is  sanitary,  and 
where  baths  are  few  and  far  between  short  hair 
makes  a  great  difference.  Each  company  has 
a  barber.  Therefore  the  excitement  was  at 
fever  pitch  once  in  Company  B  when  Lo- 
reno,  its  barber,  deserted  and  got  to  Italy, 
taking  with  him  the  barber  tools.  As  a  result 
they  used  mule  clippers  for  some  time. 


98  Average  Americans 

The  men  took  great  pride  in  the  good  name 
of  their  organization.  One  man,  who  after- 
ward proved  himself  an  excellent  soldier  and 
a  good  American,  came  to  us  through  the 
draft  with  no  idea  of  loyalty  to  the  flag,  and 
with  no  real  feeling  for  the  country  of  any  sort. 
He  tried  to  desert  twice,  but  we  caught  him 
both  times,  although  on  the  last  occasion  he 
got  as  far  as  Marseilles.  During  the  trial, 
while  the  court  was  sitting,  he  became  fright- 
ened and  broke  away  from  the  sentry  who  had 
him  in  charge.  The  alarm  sounded  for  the 
guard,  which  immediately  started  out  through 
the  dark  and  rain  on  the  jimip.  Then,  with- 
out any  orders,  the  escaped  prisoner's  own 
company  turned  out  to  help  them,  not  because 
they  had  to,  but  because  they  felt  he  was 
hurting  their  company  record. 

"What  is  it.  Bill?"  I  heard  one  man  call. 

''Aw,  it's  that  guy  Blank  who's  been  giving 
Company  B  a  black  eye.  He's  beat  it  again, 
and  we're  going  out  to  get  him." 

About  this  time  we  were  issued  gas  masks 
for  the  first  time,  thus  furnishing  us  with 


Early  Days  in  the  Trenches      99 

another  weapon,  or  means,  of  warfare  about 
which  we  knew  nothing.  There  was  a  small, 
active  individual  with  glasses  from  general 
headquarters  who  was  supposed  to  be  our 
instructor.  He  used  to  give  us  long  lectures 
on  gas,  in  which  he  told  us  when  gas  had 
first  been  used  in  the  past  (I  believe  by  the 
Greeks),  how  it  had  been  employed  in  the 
beginning  of  the  war,  what  gases  had  been 
used,  and  what  their  chemical  components 
were.  He  told  us  at  great  length  how  to 
protect  ourselves  against  the  gas  cloud,  and 
then  informed  us  that  cloud  gas  was  not  used 
any  longer.  Later  he  took  up  the  deadly  ef- 
fects of  mustard  gas,  and  how  we  must  imme- 
diately put  on  the  gas  masks  when  gas  was 
evident. 

Toward  the  end  of  the  lecture  a  deeply 
interested  officer  asked  him  how  one  could 
detect  gas  when  it  was  present  in  dangerous 
quantities.  He  didn^t  know;  so  we  left  the 
lecture  with  full  information  as  to  obsolete 
methods  of  using  gas,  with  full  information  as 
to  its  chemical  components  and  effects,  but 


100  Average  Americans 

with  no  information  as  to  how  to  detect  it 
when  it  was  present  in  dangerous  quantities. 

To  try  to  put  interest  in  the  work  and 
make  it  less  hard  on  the  men,  we  organized 
competitions  in  everything — competitions  for 
the  best  platoon  billet,  competitions  for  the 
best  platoon  in  close  order  drill,  bayonet,  etc. 
The  prizes  were  almost  negligible.  Sometimes 
it  would  simply  be  that  the  victorious  platoon 
was  excused  from  some  formation,  but  the 
men  took  to  it  like  a  duck  to  water. 

The  officers  became  fully  as  keen  as  the  men. 
I  never  shall  forget  the  company  commanders 
who,  together  with  myself,  formed  the  judges. 
They  would  always  start  off  by  saying  in  an 
airy  manner  it  was  for  the  good  of  the  entire 
organization,  and  that  they  personally  did  not 
care  whether  their  company  won  or  not,  pro- 
vided the  battalion  was  benefited.  As  soon 
as  the  contest  was  under  way,  however,  all 
was  different,  and  it  generally  narrowed  down 
to  my  doing  all  the  judging.  They  would 
come  up  and  protest  the  standing  in  competi- 
tions in  the  official  bulletin  for  all  the  world 


Early  Days  in  the  Trenches    ;l<?i:-  ■ ; 

as  if  they  were  managers  of  a  big  league  base- 
ball team. 

About  this  time  we  organized  a  dnmi  and 
bugle  corps.  This  corps  got  so  it  could 
render  very  loudly  and  very  badly  a  number 
of  French  and  American  tunes.  We  used 
it  on  all  our  long  marches  and  maneuvers. 
We  used  it  for  reveille  in  the  morning, 
for  retreat  in  the  evening,  for  close-order 
drill  and  all  ceremonies.  The  men  got  so 
they  thought  a  good  deal  of  it,  and  fre- 
quently when  marching  through  towns  the 
troops  would  call  out,  "How  about  that 
band?*'  The  doughboy  likes  to  show  off.  I 
know,  myself,  that  I  always  got  a  thrill  of 
conscious  pride  going  through  a  town,  the 
troops  marching  at  attention,  colors  flying, 
bugles  playing,  drums  beating,  and  the  women 
and  children  standing  on  the  streets  and 
shouting. 

We  had,  in  addition  to  this  early  training, 
long  days  spent  in  maneuvers.  I  disapproved 
heartily  of  these  maneuvers  at  the  time,  look- 
ing at  them  from  the  point  of  view  of  bat- 


jidii {])' 'i  i  .Average  Americans 

talion  commander,  who  feels  that  any  at- 
tempt on  the  part  of  the  higher  command 
to  have  maneuvers  on  a  large  scale  is  wast- 
ing valuable  time  that  might  be  employed  by 
him  to  better  advantage.  I  am  sure  now 
that  General  Fiske,  the  head  of  the  American 
training  section,  was  right  when  he  pre- 
scribed them  and  that  the  maneuvers  con- 
tributed greatly  to  the  ability  of  the  First 
Division  to  keep  in  contact  when  it  struck 
the  line.  The  necessity  for  them,  of  course, 
was  based  on  the  fact  that,  great  as  was  the 
ignorance  of  our  junior  officers,  it  was  com- 
paratively far  less  than  the  ignorance  of  our 
higher  command  and  staff.  These  maneuvers 
were  bitter  work  for  the  soldiers  who  would 
be  out  all  day,  insufficiently  clad  and  insuf- 
ficiently fed.  Often  a  bloody  trail  was  left 
in  the  snow  by  the  men  who  at  this  time  had 
virtually  no  boots.  We  used  to  call  it  Indian 
warfare  and  say  we  were  chasing  the  last  of 
the  Mohicans  over  the  Ligny  sector. 

About  this  time  we  began  to  work  into 
some  complicated  trench  maneuvers.     These 


Early  Days  in  the  Trenches     103 

were  the  ones  the  men  liked.  They  threw 
hand  grenades,  fired  trench  mortars,  and  had 
a  general  Fourth  of  July  celebration. 

Once  we  had  a  maneuver  of  this  kind 
before  General  Pershing.  The  company  offi- 
cers were  lined  up  and  afterward  were  asked 
their  opinion  as  to  how  the  men  had  con- 
ducted themselves.  The  first  one  to  answer 
was  a  game  little  fellow  named  Wortley  from 
Los  Angeles,  who  was  afterward  killed.  He 
said  that'  he  thought  everything  went  off  very 
well  and  he  didn't  think  he  had  anything  to 
criticize.  The  next  lieutenant  said  that  he 
thought  that  a  few  men  of  his  company  had 
got  a  Httle  mixed  up.  This  was  a  cheerful 
point  of  view  for  him  to  have,  for,  as  a  mat- 
ter of  fact,  two  thirds  of  his  company  had 
gone  astray.  His  company  had  been  se- 
lected to  deliver  a  flank  attack  over  the  top, 
but  when  this  took  place  it  consisted  of  one 
lieutenant  and  two  privates.  The  mistake, 
however,  was  never  noticed. 

Indeed,  the  generals  and  suchlike  who  come 
to  maneuvers  can  rarely  criticize  the  efforts  of 


104  Average  Americans 

the  company  and  field  officers,  as  they  are  not 
conversant  with  the  handHng  of  small  units. 
Their  presence  at  maneuvers  is  largely  a 
question  of  morale.  I  remember  during  an 
exercise  a  higher  officer,  a  very  fine  man  to 
whom  I  afterward  became  devoted  turned 
to  me  and  said:  ''Have  a  trench  raid.'' 

"When,  sir?"  I  asked. 

"Immediately." 

Now,  any  junior  officer  knows  that  a  trench 
raid  cannot  be  staged  the  way  you  can  fire  a 
rocket.  It  has  to  be  thought  out  in  every 
detail  and  all  concerned  have  to  be  familiarized 
with  all  phases  of  the  plan  in  so  far  as  it  is 
possible.  I  got  two  very  good  lieutenants 
and,  hastily  outlining  the  situation,  told  them 
to  go  ahead.  They  made  their  plans  in  five 
minutes.  I  got  some  hand  grenades  for  them 
and  they  gave  a  lively  imitation.  The  trenches 
they  raided  did  not  exist,  but  were  simply 
marked  by  tape  on  the  ground.  They  did 
very  well  considering  the  circimistances,  but 
the  higher  officer  remarked  to  the  assembled 
officers  on  its  completion  that  he  didn't  know 


Early  Days  in  the  Trenches    105 

anything  about  raids,  but  this  one  did  not 
appeal  to  him.  It  took  all  concerned  quite 
a  while  to  get  over  their  feeling  about  this 
criticism. 

During  this  period  we  heard  of  B  angler 
torpedoes.  These  torpedoes  are  long  sections 
of  tin  tubing  loaded  with  high  explosive  and 
are  used  for  tearing  up  the  enemy  wire  in 
order  that  the  raiding  party  may  get  through 
into  the  trenches.  Nothing  of  the  kmd  was 
to  be  had  from  our  people,  but  we  obtained 
permission  to  send  someone  to  try  to  get  one 
from  the  various  French  ammunition  dumps 
near  by.  Lieutenant  Ridgely,  my  adjutant, 
went.  He  turned  up  after  a  hectic  day  with 
some  long  sections  of  stovepipe  and  a  number 
of  little  tin  cases.  He  explained  that  he  had 
been  unable  to  get  the  torpedoes,  but  that  he 
had  got  some  stovepipe  and  some  very  deadly 
explosive  and  perhaps  we  could  make  one. 

The  next  day  we  set  out  to  follow  his  plan 
and  two  afternoons  later  completed  our  ex- 
periment, and  gave  an  exhibition  before  the 
assembled  officers  of  the  brigade.     The  raiding 


io6  Average  Americans 

party  were  picked  men,  whom  I  considered 
among  the  best  in  the  battalion.  They  all 
crawled  out  through  the  assumed  "No  Man's 
Land,'*  holding  on  to  one  another's  heels 
and  endeavoring  to  look  just  as  businessHke 
as  possible.  Their  faces  were  blackened  and 
they  carried  trench  knives  and  hand  grenades. 
The  party  which  was  to  set  off  the  torpedo 
lighted  it,  poked  it  under  the  wire,  then  leaped 
up  and  dashed  through  the  gap  in  the  wire  to  the 
trenches  where  the  enemy  were  supposed  to  be. 
On  account  of  the  amateur  workmanship,  only 
a  part  of  the  charge  went  off,  and  I  never  shall 
forget  my  horror  when  I  saw  the  party  of  my 
picked  men  galloping  gallantly  through  the 
gap  over  this  smoking,  unexploded  charge.  I 
had  visions  of  having  to  reorganize  the  battal- 
ion the  next  day.  Fortunately  the  charge  did 
not  go  off  and  all  worked  out  well. 

Later  we  started  a  good  deal  of  work  at 
night,  realizing  how  difficult  it  was  for  men 
to  find  their  way  and  how  necessary  it  was 
for  them  to  get  used  to  working  in  the  dark. 
This  training  the  men  enjoyed.     It  was  all 


Early  Days  in  the  Trenches    107 

in  the  nature  of  a  competition.  Reconnais- 
sance patrols  would  be  started  out  to  see 
how  near  they  could  approach  to  the  dummy 
trenches  without  detection.  In  the  dummy 
trenches  other  groups,  with  flares,  etc.,  would 
keep  a  strict  watch.  Combat  patrols  would 
go  out  two  at  a  time,  each  looking  for  the 
other.  I  recall  one  night  when  two  patrols 
ran  into  one  another  suddenly.  One  of  the 
privates  was  so  overcome  with  zeal  when 
he  saw  the  supposed  enemy  that  he  made  as 
pretty  a  lunge  with  his  bayonet  as  I  have  ever 
seen  and  stabbed  through  both  cheeks  of  the 
man  opposite  him. 

During  the  entire  time  we  were  in  France 
we  trained  much  along  the  lines  indicated  in 
the  previous  paragraphs,  except  that  as  we  be- 
came veterans  we  naturally  became  more  con- 
versant with  the  correct  methods  of  instruction. 
For  trained  troops  who  are  leaving  the  line 
it  is  my  opinion  that  two  points  should  be 
stressed  above  the  rest — one  is  close-order 
drill  and  the  other  rifle  practice.  In  the  First 
Battalion  we  were  particularly  fortunate  in 


io8  Average  Americans 

this  period  in  having  with  us  Captain  Amel 
Frey  and  Lieutenants  Freml  and  Gillian,  all 
three  of  whom  had  served  as  N.  C.  0/s  in  the 
regular  Army.  They  understood  close-order 
work,  the  service  rifle,  and  the  handling  of  men, 
and  to  them  a  large  part  of  the  early  training 
is  ascribable. 

The  next  point  in  the  hne  to  which  we 
went  was  the  Tqul  sector.  This  was  much 
more  lively  than  Arracourt,  and  here  we 
had  our  first  real  taste  of  war.  No  Man's 
Land  was  not  more  than  fifty  to  one  hun- 
dred yards  in  width  at  many  places.  The 
whole  terrain  had  been  occupied  for  three 
years,  and,  as  there  had  been  many  slight 
changes  of  position,  abandoned  trenches,  filled 
half  full  of  mud  and  wire,  ran  everywhere. 
Originally  the  front  had  been  held  with  a 
large  number  of  troops,  but  when  we  took 
it  over,  these  had  been  reduced  to  such  an 
extent  that  now  one  company  would  hold  a 
kilometer  in  width.  The  line  of  support  was 
furthermore  about  one  kilometer  in  the  rear. 
It  was  winter  and  snow  and  sleet  and  mud 


Early  Days  in  the  Trenches    109 

formed  an  ever-present  trio.  As  always  in 
trench  warfare,  the  night  was  the  time  of 
activity.  During  the  day  everything  was 
quiet;  in  walking  through  the  trenches  all 
one  would  meet  was  an  occasional  sentry. 

This  night  work  was  hard  on  the  new 
men,  for  it  is  easy  to  see  things  at  night 
even  if  you  are  an  old  soldier.  If  you  are 
a  recruit,  you  just  can't  help  seeing  them. 

''Well,  Major,  it's  like  this,"  was  the  way 
Sergeant  Rose,  an  old-timer,  put  it  to  me 
when  I  was  speaking  to  him  in  the  front-line 
trenches  one  night.  "I'm  an  old  soldier, 
but  when  I  stand  and  look  out  over  this 
trench  long  enough,  the  first  thing  I  know, 
those  posts  with  the  wire  attached  to  them 
begin  to  do  squads  right  and  squads  left,  and 
if  I  ain't  careful,  I  have  to  shoot  them  to 
keep  them  from  charging  this  trench." 

Private  Jones  would  imagine  he  saw  a 
German  patrol  approaching  him,  fire  all  his 
hand  grenades  at  them,  and  send  in  a  report 
to  the  effect  that  he  had  repulsed  a  raid  and 
that  there  were  three  or  four  dead  Germans 


no  Average  Americans 

lying  in  front  of  his  part  of  the  Hne.  Investi- 
gation would  prove  that  an  old  stirnip  or  a 
sandbag  had  received  all  his  attention. 

The  division  had  fairly  heavy  casualties  in 
this  sector.  The  Germans  staged  a  couple 
of  raids.  Also  there  were  heavy  artillery 
actions  very  frequently.  Generally  these 
would  start  around  three  o'clock  in  the  morn- 
ing. First  would  come  the  preliminary  straf- 
ing. During  it  the  higher  command  would 
call  up  and  ask  what  was  going  on,  to  which 
you  replied  N.  T.  R. — (nothing  to  report). 
Then  the  shelling  would  commence  in  earnest 
and  all  connections  would  go  out  at  once. 
From  then  on,  runners  were  the  only  method 
of  communication  until  everything  was  over. 
One  could  never  be  sure  that  each  strafing 
was  not  the  preliminary  to  an  assault.  Straf- 
ing like  this  was  very  picturesque.  Gener- 
ally I  got  into  position  where  I  could  see  as 
much  of  the  front  as  I  could.  It  is  possible  to 
guess  by  the  intensity  of  shelling  just  what  is 
getting  ready,  while  hand  grenades  and  rifle 
fire  mean  that  an  attack  is  taking  place.     First 


Early  Days  In  the  Trenches    tii 

a  few  flashes  can  be  seen,  which  increase  until 
on  all  sides  you  see  the  bursts  of  the  shrapnel 
and  the  noise  becomes  deafening.  Then  it 
gradually  dies  away  and  a  thick  acrid  cloud  of 
smoke  lies  over  everything. 

During  one  of  these  actions  a  runner  came 
in  to  report  that  the  captain  of  the  right 
flank  company  had  been  severely  hit.  The 
second  in  command  had  not,  in  my  opinion, 
had  quite  enough  experience,  so  I  sent  my 
scout  officer  back  with  the  runner  to  take 
command  They  got  to  a  bit  of  trench  where 
shells  were  falling  thick. 

''Lieutenant,  you  wait  here  while  I  see 
if  we  can  get  through,**  said  the  runner  to 
the  officer. 

"Why  should  you  go  rather  than  me?" 
asked  the  lieutenant. 

"Well,**  came  the  reply,  '*you  see  you  are 
going  to  command  the  company.  I'm  just  a 
runner.     They  can  get  lots  more  of  me.** 

A  very  good  sergeant  of  mine,  Ross  by 
name,  had  his  hand  blown  off  in  this  sector. 

He  was  making  a  reconnaissance  with  a 


It  1 2  Average  Americans 

view  to  a  patrol,  when  a  German  trench  mor- 
tar shell  that  had  been  imbedded  in  the  para- 
pet went  off  under  his  hand.  As  he  passed  me 
he  simply  said:  ''Major,  I  am  awfully  sorry 
to  leave  you  this  early  before  the  real  game 
begins." 

Here  we  captured  our  first  German  prisoner. 
I  doubt  whether  any  German  will  ever  be  as 
precious  to  any  of  us  as  this  man  was.  We 
had  patrolled  quite  a  good  deal,  but  the  Ger- 
mans had  either  stopped  patrolling  in  the 
sector  in  front  of  us  or  we  were  unfortunate 
in  not  running  into  any  of  them.  We  felt  at 
last  that  the  only  way  to  get  a  prisoner  was  to 
go  over  to  the  German  trenches  and  pull  one 
out. 

One  night  Lieutenant  Christian  Holmes,  Ser- 
geants Murphy,  McCormack,  Samari  (bom 
in  southern  Italy),  and  Leonard,  who  was 
called  Scotty  and  who  spoke  with  a  pronounced 
Irish  brogue,  were  designated  to  raid  a  Hsten- 
ing  post.  They  crawled  on  their  bellies  across 
No  Man's  Land,  got  through  the  maze  of  wire, 
and  ran  right  on  top  of  a  German  listening 


Early  Days  in  the  Trenches    113 

post.  A  prisoner  was  what  they  wanted,  so 
Lieutenant  Holmes,  who  was  leading  the  party, 
leaped  upon  one  of  the  two  Germans  and  locked 
him  in  a  tight  embrace.  The  German's 
partner  thereupon  endeavored  to  bayonet 
Lieutenant  Holmes,  who  was  struggling  in 
two  feet  of  water  with  his  captive,  but  was 
prevented  by  a  timely  thrust  from  Sergeant 
Murphy's  bayonet.  They  seized  the  German, 
who  was  shrieking  ^'Kamerad"  at  the  top  of 
his  lungs,  and  dragged  him  back  across  No 
Man's  Land  at  the  double. 

When  they  came  in  with  him  we  were 
as  pleased  as  Punch.  Indeed,  we  hardly 
wanted  to  let  him  go  to  the  rear,  as  we  had 
a  distinct  feeling  more  or  less  that  we  wanted 
to  keep  him  to  look  at.  He  was  a  young, 
scrawny  fellow,  and  gave  us  much  information 
concerning  the  troops  opposite  us.  Lieuten- 
ant Holmes  and  Sergeant  Murphy  received  the 
Distinguished  Service  Cross  for  this  work;  and 
well  deserved  it,  for  they  showed  the  way  and 
did  a  really  hard  job.  Holmes  told  me  after- 
ward that  they  had  all  agreed  that  they  would 


114  Average  Americans 

not  come  back  until  they  had  got  their  prisoner. 
They  had  decided  that  if  they  did  not  find  him 
in  the  first  front-Kne  trenches  they  would  go 
back  as  far  as  necessary,  but  they  were  going 
to  find  him  or  not  come  back. 

We  began  here  also  for  the  first  time  to 
play  with  that  most  elusive  of  all  military 
amusements,  the  code.  In  order  that  the 
Germans,  in  listening  in  on  our  telephone 
conversations,  might  not  know  what  we  were 
about,  everything  was  put  in  code  or  cipher. 
The  high  command  issued  to  us  the  Napoleon 
code.  The  Napoleon  code  is  written  entirely 
in  French.  Only  a  few  of  us  could  read  French, 
with  the  result  that  only  a  few  could  send 
messages.  General  Hines,  then  colonel  of  the 
Sixteenth  Infantry,  realized  that  this  was  a 
poor  idea,  so  he  made  up  a  code  of  his  own. 
This  code  went  by  the  name  of  the  Cauliflower 
Code,  and  the  commanding  officer,  his  adju- 
tant, etc.,  in  every  place  were  given  dis- 
tinctive names. 

Conversation  ran  something  like  this — 
''Hello,  hello,   I  want  Hannibal.     Hannibal 


Early  Days  in  the  Trenches     115 

is  not  there?  Give  me  Brains.  Brains,  this 
is  the  King  of  Essex  talking.  Sunflower. 
No  balloons,  tomatoes,  asparagus.  No,  No. 
I  said  no  balloons!  Oh,  damn.  My  kitchens 
haven*t  come.     Have  them  sent  up.*' 

When  we  received  rush  orders  to  leave 
this  sector,  I  tried  to  mobilize  my  wagon 
truck  by  telephone.  The  supply  officers  all 
went  by  the  name  of  Sarah  in  the  code.  I 
would  start  off,  ''Hello,  hello.  This  is  the 
King  of  Essex  talking.  I  want  little  Sarah. 
Little  Sarah  Van.'*  Lieutenant  Van,  my  sup- 
ply officer,  would  reply  from  the  other  side, 
''Hello,  hello,  is  this  the  King  of  Essex  talk- 
ing?" "It  is."  "Well,  Major  Roosevelt," 
then  the  connection  would  be  cut.  After  much 
labor  I  got  him  again.  I  had  just  begun, 
"Balloons,  radishes,  carrots"  when  we  were 
cut  off  again.  The  next  time  we  got  the 
connection  we  said  what  we  had  to  say  in 
plain  English  and  quickly. 

One  evening  just  after  we  had  arrived  in 
the  front-line  trenches,  after  a  rest  in  the 
support  position,  the  telephone  buzzed.     The 


ii6  Average  Americans 

adjutant  leaped  to  it.  ''Yes,  this  is  Blank. 
What  is  it?  Yes,  yes.  The  Napoleon  code.*' 
And  then  for  some  thirty  minutes,  during 
which  time  the  trench  telephone  ceased  to 
work,  was  cut  oflf,  or  simply  went  dead,  the 
Adjutant  took  down  a  long  string  of  numbers. 
At  the  end  of  that  period  he  had  a  sheet  of 
paper  in  front  of  him  which  looked  for  all 
the  world  like  the  financial  statement  of  a 
large  bank.  He  rushed  to  our  portfolio 
where  the  sector  papers  were  kept,  yanked 
them  out,  ran  over  them  in  a  hurry,  and 
then  turned  to  me  with  a  blank  look  of  grief: 
''Sorry,  sir,  we  have  left  the  code  behind.'* 
We  thought  for  a  moment,  then  called  back 
the  sender,  and  said,  "Sir,  we  have  forgotten 
our  code."  He  remarked  blithely  from  the 
other  end,  "If  the  message  had  been  an 
important  one,  I  would  not  have  sent  it  in 
code.  I'll  give  it  to  you  when  I  see  you  to- 
night." 

Our  first  real  experience  with  gas  came 
in  this  sector.  As  I  said  before,  we  had  been 
taught  how  to  put  on  and  take  off  our  gas 


Early  Days  in  the  Trenches    117 

masks,  how  gas  was  used  by  the  ancients, 
what  methods  had  been  used  and  abandoned 
in  the  present  war,  what  the  chemical  com- 
ponents were,  what  the  effects  were,  but  not 
how  to  detect  it  when  it  was  present  in  danger- 
ous quantities.  The  result  was  that  every- 
one was  thoroughly  apprehensive  of  gas  and 
afraid  he  would  not  be  able  to  detect  it. 
We  had  all  sorts  of  nice  little  appliances  in 
the  trenches  to  give  the  alarm.  They  con- 
sisted of  bells,  gongs.  Klaxon  horns,  and  beauti- 
ful rockets  that  burst  in  a  green  flare.  A  nerv- 
ous sentry  would  be  pacing  to  and  fro.  It 
would  be  wet  and  lonely  and  he  would  think 
of  what  unpleasant  things  he  had  been  told 
happened  to  the  men  who  were  gassed.  A 
shell  would  burst  near  him.  ' '  By  George,  that 
smells  queer,*'  he  would  think.  He  would 
sniff"  again.  ''No  question  about  it,  that  must 
be  gas!"  and  blam!  would  go  the  gas  alarm. 
Then  from  one  end  of  the  line  to  the  other 
gongs  and  horns  would  soimd  and  green  rock- 
ets would  streak  across  the  sky  and  platoon 
after  platoon  would  wearily  encase  itself  in  gas 


II 8  Average  Americans 

masks.  One  night  I  stood  in  the  reserve 
position  and  watched  a  celebration  of  this 
sort.  It  looked  and  sounded  like  a  witches' 
sabbath. 

After  a  certain  amount  of  this  we  worked 
into  a  practical  knowledge  of  gas.  We  found 
that  there  were  only  two  methods  of  attack 
we  had  to  fear :  one  was  by  cylinders  thrown 
by  projectors,  and  the  other  by  gas  shelling 
by  the  enemy  artillery.  With  the  former, 
an  attack  was  often  detected  before  it  took 
place  by  our  intelligence,  and  it  was  possible 
to  tell  by  a  fiare  that  showed  up  along  the 
horizon  on  the  discharge  of  the  projectors 
when  the  attack  commenced.  With  the  latter, 
after  a  little  practice,  it  was  perfectly  simple 
to  tell  a  gas  shell  from  a  H.  E.  shell,  as  it  made 
a  sound  like  a  dud.  The  difficulty  with  both 
types  of  attack  was  not  so  much  in  getting  the 
gas  masks  on  in  time,  as  there  was  always 
plenty  of  time  for  that,  but  rather  in  hold- 
ing heavily  gassed  areas,  where  bums  and 
trouble  of  all  sorts  were  almost  impossible  to 
avoid. 


Early  Days  in  the  Trenches     119 

It  was  in  this  Toul  sector  on  March  nth 
that  my  brother  Archie  was  severely  wounded. 
The  Huns  were  strafing  heavily  and  an  attack 
by  them  was  expected.  He  was  redisposing 
his  men  when  he  was  hit  by  a  shell  and  badly 
wounded  both  in  the  left  arm  and  left  leg. 
Major  A.  W.  Kenner,  M.  C,  and  Sergeant 
Hood  were  shelled  by  the  Germans  while  they 
were  moving  out  the  wounded,  among  them 
my  brother,  when,  because  of  the  stretchers 
they  were  carrying,  they  had  to  walk  over  the 
top  and  not  through  some  bad  bits  of  trench. 
To  Major  A.  W.  Kenner,  M.  C,  and  Captain 
E.  D.  Morgan,  M.  R.  C,  is  due  great  credit, 
not  only  in  this  operation,  but  in  all  the  work 
to  come.  They  never  shrank  from  danger  or 
hardship  and  their  actions  were  at  all  times 
an  inspiration  to  those  around  them. 


CHAPTER  VII 

MONTDIDIER 

"And  horror  is  not  from  terrible  things — men  torn  to  rags  by  a 
shell, 
And  the  whole  trench  swimming  in  blood  and  slush,  like  a 

Butcher's  shop  in  Hell; 
It's  silence  and  night  and  the  smell  of  the  dead  that  shake  a 

man  to  the  soul, 
From  Misery  Farm  to  Dead  Man's  Death  on  a  nil  report  patrol." 

Knight-Adkin. 

D  Y  the  end  of  March  we  were  veteran  troops. 
All  during  the  latter  part  of  the  month 
rumor  had  been  rife  about  the  proposed  Ger- 
man drive.  After  nearly  four  years  of  war, 
Germany  had  crushed  Russia,  Rumania,  Bel- 
gium, Serbia,  Montenegro,  and  Albania;  had 
dealt  Italy  a  staggering  blow,  and  was  about 
to  asstime  the  offensive  in  France.  On  March 
28th  the  blow  fell,  the  allied  line  staggered 
and  split,  and  the  Germans  poured  through 

the  gap. 

120 


Montdidier  121 

The  news  reached  us,  and  at  the  same  time 
came  orders  to  prepare  for  an  immediate  move. 
At  once  the  Twenty-sixth  American  Division 
moved  up  in  our  rear,  and  with  hardly  any 
time  for  reconnaissance  they  took  over  from 
us.  My  battalion  moved  out  and  marched 
twelve  kilometers  to  the  rear;  the  last  units 
checked  in  to  where  our  trains  were  to  meet  us 
at  about  5  a.m.,  and  by  6  a.m.  we  were  on  the 
march  again  to  the  vicinity  of  Toul,  where  the 
division  was  concentrating. 

Here  we  were  told  that  we  were  to  be  thrown 
into  the  path  of  the  German  advance.  By 
this  time  all  types  of  nmior  were  current. 
We  heard  of  the  Englishman  Gary's  remark- 
able feat,  how  he  collected  cooks,  engineers, 
labor  troops  from  the  retreating  forces,  formed 
them  into  a  fighting  unit,  and  stood  against 
the  German  advance,  and  how  his  brigade 
grew  up  over  night.  Gary,  because  of  this 
feat,  became,  from  captain  in  the  Q.  M.  G., 
general  of  infantry.  We  heard  of  the  thirty- 
six  hours  during  which  all  contact  was  lost 
between   the   French   left   and   the   English 


122  Average  Americans 

right,  when  a  French  cavalry  division  was 
brought  in  trucks  from  the  rear  of  the  line 
and  thrown  into  the  gap,  and  on  the  morning 
of  the  second  day  reported  that  they  believed 
they  had  established  contact  with  the  Eng- 
Hsh. 

The  next  few  days  all  was  excitement. 
We  formed  the  men  and  gave  out  our  first 
decorations  to  Lieutenant  Holmes  and  Ser- 
geant Murphy.  At  the  same  time  we  told 
them  all  that  we  knew  of  our  plans.  They 
were  delighted.  Men  do  not  like  sitting  in 
trenches  day  in  and  day  out,  and  being  killed 
and  mangled  without  ever  seeing  the  enemy, 
and  this  promised  a  fight  where  the  enemy 
would  be  in  sight. 

We  had  a  large,  rough  shack  where  we 
were  able  to  have  all  the  officers  of  the  bat- 
talion for  mess.  Lieutenant  Gustafson,  an 
Illinois  boy,  who  had,  in  civilian  life,  been  a 
head  waiter  at  summer  hotels,  managed  the 
mess.  We  had  some  good  voices  among  the 
officers,  and  every  night  after  dinner  there  was 
singing. 


Montdidier  123 

Our  supply  officer,  meanwhile,  was  annex- 
ing everything  in  sight  for  the  battalion  in 
the  most  approved  fashion.  One  time  his 
right-hand  man.  Sergeant  Wheeler,  passed  by 
some  tethered  mules  which  belonged  to  a 
green  regiment.  He  hopped  off  the  ration 
cart  he  was  riding,  caught  them,  and  tied  them 
behind  the  cart.  A  mile  down  the  road  some 
one  came  pounding  after  them. 

'*Hey!  Where  are  you  going  with  those 
mules?"  Wheeler  was  equal  to  the  occasion. 
'*Are  them  your  mules?  Well,  what  do  you 
mean  by  leaving  them  loose  by  the  road? 
I  had  to  get  out  and  catch  them.  I  have  a 
good  mind  to  report  you  to  the  M.  P.  for  this.*' 
Eventually  Wheeler  compromised  by  warn- 
ing the  man,  and  giving  one  of  the  mules  back 
to  him. 

Then  the  trains  arrived.  We  had  never 
traveled  on  a  regular  military  train  before. 
A  military  train  is  made  up  to  carry  a  bat- 
talion of  infantry;  box  cars  holding  about  forty 
men  or  eight  animals  each,  and  flat  cars 
for    wagons,    kitchens,    etc.     We    entrained 


124  Average  Americans 

safely  and  got  off  all  right,  though  we  were 
hurried  at  the  last  by  a  message  saying  the 
schedule  given  us  was  wrong,  and  our  train 
left  one  half  hour  earlier  than  indicated. 

We  creaked  off  toward  the  southwest.  We 
didn't  know  where  we  were  going,  but  by 
this  time  we  had  all  become  philosophical 
and  self-sufficient  and  believed  that  if  the 
train  dropped  us  somewhere  far  away  from 
the  rest  of  the  division,  we  would  manage 
to  get  along  by  ourselves  without  too  much 
trouble. 

After  a  day's  travel  we  stopped  at  a  little 
station.  The  only  thing  that  we  had  to 
identify  us  was  a  long  yellow  ticket  scratched 
all  over  with  minute  directions,  which  none  of 
us  could  read.  Here  I  was  informed  by  a 
French  guard  that  this  was  the  regulating 
station  and  the  American  regulating  officer 
was  waiting  to  see  me.  I  hopped  off  the  train 
and  ran  back,  finding  Colonel  Hjalmar  Erick- 
son,  who  afterward  became  a  very  dear  friend 
of  mine  and  later  commanded  the  regiment. 
He  was  busy  trying  to  figure  things  out  with 


Montdidier  125 

the  French  chef  de  la  gare,  an  effort  compli- 
cated by  his  inabiUty  to  speak  French. 

''My  lord,  Major,  why  aren*t  you  the 
Seventh  Field  Artillery?"  was  Colonel  Erick- 
son's  greeting. 

As  he  was  giving  me  the  plans  and  maps 
I  heard  a  whoop  from  the  train  outside.  I 
ran  to  the  door  and  found  that,  for  some  reason, 
best  known  to  himself,  the  French  engineer 
had  started  up  again  and  my  battalion  was 
rapidly  disappearing  down  the  track.  I 
started  on  the  dead  run  after  them.  For- 
tunately some  of  the  officers  saw  what 
was  happening,  and  by  force  of  arms  suc- 
ceeded in  persuading  the  engineer  to  stop  the 
train. 

That  night  we  detrained  a  couple  of  days* 
march  from  Chaumont-en-Vexin,  where  divi- 
sion headquarters  were  to  be.  We  hiked 
through  a  beautiful  peaceful  country,  the  most 
lovely  we  had  yet  seen  in  France,  billeting  for 
the  night  in  a  little  town  where  a  whole  com- 
pany of  mine  slept  in  an  old  chateau.  At 
Chaumont   we    stayed  for    some  few   days, 


126  Average  Americans 

maneuvering  while  the  division  was  being  fully 
assembled. 

From  Chaumont  we  marched  north  for 
four  days  to  the  Montdidier  sector.  I  never 
shall  forget  this  march.  Spring  was  on  the 
land,  the  trees  were  budding,  wild  flowers 
covered  the  ground,  the  birds  were  singing. 
Our  dusty  brown  column  wound  up  hill  and 
down,  through  patches  of  woods  and  little 
villages.  By  us,  all  day,  toward  the  south 
streamed  the  French  refugees  from  villages 
threatened,  or  already  taken,  by  the  Hun. 
Heavy  home-made  wagons  trundled  past, 
drawn  by  every  kind  of  animal,  and  piled  high 
with  hay  and  farm  produce,  furniture,  and  odds 
and  ends  of  household  belongings.  Tramping 
beside  them  or  riding  on  them  were  women 
and  children,  most  of  them  dazed  and  with  a 
haunted  look  in  their  faces.  Sometimes  the 
wagons  would  be  halted  and  their  occupants 
squatted  by  the  road,  cooking  a  scanty  meal 
from  what  they  had  with  them. 

To  us  in  this  country,  thanks  to  Providence, 
not  to  oiu*  own  forethought  or  character,  this 


Montdidier  127 

description  is  only  so  many  words.  Unless 
one  has  seen  it,  it  is  impossible  to  visualize 
the  battered  village,  the  coltimn  of  refugees 
that  starts  at  each  great  battle  and  streams 
ceaselessly  toward  Paris  and  southern  France, 
the  apple  orchards  and  gardens  torn  beyond 
recognition,  the  desolation  and  destruction 
seemingly  impossible  of  reparation. 

Nothing  would  have  been  better  for  our 
countrymen  and  women  than  for  each  and 
every  one  of  them  to  have  spent  some  time  in 
the  war  zone.  When  I  think  of  men  of  the 
type  of  Bryan  and  Ford,  when  I  think  of  their 
self-satisfied  lives  of  ease,  when  I  think  of 
what  they  did  to  permit  disaster  and  death 
to  threaten  this  country,  it  makes  me  wonder 
more  than  ever  at  the  long-suffering  kindness 
of  humanity  which  permits  such  as  they  still 
to  enjoy  the  benefits  of  citizenship  in  this 
great  land  which  they  have  so  signally  failed 
to  serve. 

When  we  took  over  the  Montdidier  sector 
it  was  not,  nor  did  it  ever  become,  the  type 
found  in  the  parts  of  the  front  where  war- 


128  Average  Americans 

fare  had  been  going  on  without  movement 
for  more  than  three  years.  Trenches  were 
shallow  and  scanty,  and  dugouts  were  almost 
lacking.  Indeed,  from  this  time  on,  with  one 
exception,  the  division  never  held  an  estab- 
lished sector.  The  line  at  Montdidier  had 
been  established  shortly  after  the  break- 
through by  the  Germans,  by  a  French  terri- 
torial division  which  was  marching  north, 
expecting  to  relieve  some  friendly  troops  in 
front  of  it.  They  suddenly  encountered,  head 
on,  the  German  columns  that  were  marching 
south.  Both  sides  deployed,  went  into  posi- 
tion, and  dug  in  where  they  were.  The  First 
Division  took  over  from  these  troops. 

The  first  morning  we  were  in  the  Mont- 
didier sector  the  Huns  shelled  us  heavily. 
ImmediatQly  after  they  raided  a  part  of  our 
front  line  held  by  a  platoon  of  D  Company, 
commanded  by  Lieutenant  Dabney,  a  very 
good  fellow  from  Louisville,  Ky.  The  Ger- 
mans were  repulsed  with  loss.  We  suf- 
fered no  casualties  ourselves  except  from  the 
German  bombardment.     The  next   evening 


Montdidier  129 

we  picked  up  the  body  of  the  German  ser- 
geant commanding  the  party,  whom  we  had 
killed. 

We  staged  a  very  successful  raid  our- 
selves at  about  this  time.  The  raiding  party 
was  composed  of  eighty-five  men  of  D 
Company,  under  the  command  of  Lieutenant 
Freml.  The  section  of  German  trenches 
selected  as  the  objective  of  the  operation 
lay  in  a  little  wood  about  one  hundred  yards 
from  our  front  line.  Our  patrols  had  reported 
that  this  part  of  the  German  line  was  particu- 
larly heavily  held.  In  the  first  light  of  the 
half  dawn  the  raiding  party  worked  up  into 
position,  passing  by  through  the  mist  like 
black  shadows.  At  the  agreed  time  our  artil- 
lery came  down  with  both  the  heavies  and  the 
75's,  and  the  patch  of  woods  was  enveloped  in 
clouds  of  smoke  through  which  the  bursts  of 
the  H.  E.  showed  like  flashes  of  lightning.  In 
ten  minutes  the  guns  lifted  and  formed  a  box 
barrage,  and  the  raiding  party  went  over. 
So  rapid  was  the  whole  maneuver  that  the 
German  defensive  barrage  did  not  come  down 


130  Average  Americans 

until  after  the  raiding  party  had  reached 
the  enemy  trenches. 

The  enemy  trenches  were  found,  as  had  been 
expected,  full  of  Germans.  Most  of  them 
were  in  dugouts  or  funk  holes,  and  did  not 
make  a  severe  resistance.  "Come  out  of 
there,*'  the  man  in  charge  of  the  particular 
detail  for  that  part  of  the  trench  would  call 
down  the  dugout.  If  the  Huns  came  out,  they 
were  taken  prisoner.  If  they  did  not,  a  couple 
of  incendiary  grenades  were  thrown  down  the 
dugout  and  our  men  moved  on. 

We  captured,  in  all,  thirty-three  prisoners, 
of  whom  one  was  an  officer,  and  probably 
killed  and  wounded  as  many  more.  Our  losses 
were  one  killed  and  five  slightly  wounded.  Un- 
fortunately the  one  man  killed  was  Lieutenant 
Freml,  the  raid  leader,  who  fell  in  a  hand-to- 
hand  combat.  Freml  was  an  old  Regular 
Army  sergeant  and  had  fought  in  the  Philip- 
pine Islands.  After  this  war  he  was  planning 
to  return  and  establish  a  chicken  farm.  He 
always  kept  his  head  no  matter  what  the 
circumstances  were  and  his  solutions  for  situ- 


Montdidier  131 

ations  that  arose  were  always  practical.  His 
men  were  devoted  to  him  and  would  follow 
him  anywhere. 

The  men  returned  in  high  excitement  and 
fine  spirits.  This  was  the  most  successful 
minor  operation  we  had  had  so  far.  I  was 
with  the  raiding  party  when  it  jimiped  off 
and  then  went  to  the  point  where  they  were 
to  check  in  as  they  got  back.  There  were 
four  parties  in  all.  As  each  returned  with 
its  collection  of  prisoners,  the  first  thing 
that  the  officer  or  sergeant  in  command 
asked  was,  *'Sir,  did  any  of  the  rest  get  any 
more  prisoners  than  we  did?"  When  I  told 
one  of  them,  Lieutenant  Ridgely,  that  an- 
other party  had  brought  in  two  more  prisoners 
than  he  had,  he  wanted  to  go  back  at  once  and 
get  some  more  himself. 

A  very  gallant  fellow,  Bradley,  my  liaison 
sergeant,  asked  and  was  granted  permission 
to  go  on  the  raid.  He  turned  up  at  the 
checking-in  point  driving  three  Germans  in 
front  of  him,  his  rifle  over  his  shoulder,  the 
bayonet  covered  with  blood  and  a  German 


132  Average  Americans 

helmet  hanging  from  the  end.  As  he  passed 
I  said,  "Bradley,  I  see  you  have  a  new  bon- 
net." He  turned  to  me  with  a  beaming  smile 
and  answered,  ''Why,  Major,  I  heard  that 
Mrs.  Roosevelt  wanted  a  German  helmet  and 
this  was  such  a  nice  one  that  I  stuck  the  man 
who  had  it  on."  Poor  Bradley  was,  I  believe, 
killed  in  the  battle  of  Soissons,  though  I  never 
have  been  able  to  get  positive  information. 

A  curious  instance  of  the  way  a  man  will 
carry  one  impression  from  an  order  in  his  mind 
and  one  only  was  given  by  this  raid.  Before 
the  operation  started  I  had  given  particular 
instructions  to  the  effect  that  I  wanted  prison- 
ers and  papers.  This  is  literally  what  the 
party  brought  back,  lots  of  prisoners  and 
papers  of  all  sorts.  They  took  the  crews  of 
two  machine  guns  but  did  not  bring  the  guns 
back — that  was  not  included  in  the  instruc- 
tions. The  company  which  made  this  raid 
was  composed  of  raw  recruits  who  had  never 
had  even  the  most  rudimentary  kind  of  mili- 
tary training  until  their  arrival  in  Europe 
some  five  months  before  this  date.     They 


Montdidier  133 

were  of  all  walks  in  life  and  all  extractions. 
Many  did  not  even  speak  the  English  tongue 
with  ease. 

It  was  in  this  sector  that  the  First  Division 
staged  the  first  American  attack  when  the 
town  of  Cantigny  was  taken.  The  attack  was 
made  by  the  Twenty-eighth  Infantry.  My 
battalion,  although  not  actually  engaged  in  the 
assault,  was  in  support  and  took  over  the 
extreme  right  of  the  line  after  the  assault.  It 
also  helped  in  repelling  counter-attacks  deliv- 
ered by  the  Germans  and  in  consolidating  the 
position.  Just  preceding  the  Cantigny  show 
the  Germans  strafed  and  gassed  very  heavily 
the  positions  held  by  us.  I  suspect  that  this 
was  due  to  a  certain  amount  of  additional 
movement  in  the  sector  coincident  with  mov- 
ing the  troops  into  position  for  the  attack. 

After  gassing  us  and  strafing  us  heavily  a 
raid  in  considerable  force  was  sent  over  by  the 
Germans.  It  was  repulsed  with  heavy  loss, 
leaving  a  number  of  prisoners  in  our  hands. 
A  Company  took  the  brunt  of  this,  the 
platoon  commanded  by  Lieutenant  Andrews 


134  Average  Americans 

doing  particularly  well.  Just  after  the  repulse 
of  the  German  attack  I  was  up  watching  the 
right  of  the  line,  which  was  in  trenches  out 
in  the  open.  The  German  machine  guns  and 
sharpshooters  were  very  active.  One  of  our 
men  was  lying  behind  the  parapet.  He  had 
his  helmet  hooked  on  the  end  of  his  rifle  and 
kept  shoving  it  over  the  top.  The  Germans 
would  fire  at  it.  Then  he  would  flag  a  miss  for 
them  by  waving  it  to  and  fro  in  the  same  way 
the  flag  is  waved  for  a  miss  when  practice  on 
the  rifle  range  is  going  on. 

Our  own  losses  were  due  in  large  part  to 
the  German  artillery  fire.  In  this  operation 
a  nimiber  of  our  most  gallant  old-timers 
were  killed.  Captain  Frey,  second  in  com- 
mand of  the  battalion,  was  shot  twice  through 
the  stomach  while  leading  reenforcements  to 
his  front  line.  When  the  stretcher  bearers 
carried  him  by  me,  he  shook  my  hand,  said 
"good-by,*'  and  was  carried  away  to  the  rear. 
After  they  had  moved  him  a  short  distance 
he  lifted  himself  up,  saluted,  said  in  a  loud 
voice,  ''Sergeant,  dismiss  the  company,''  and 


Montdidier  135 

died.  Sergeant  Dennis  Sullivan,  Sergeant 
O'Rourke,  and  Sergeant  McCormick,  not 
to  mention  many,  many  others,  were  killed 
or  received  mortal  wounds  at  this  time. 

The  Cantigny  operation  was  a  success.  We 
took  and  held  the  town,  or  rather  the  spot 
where  the  town  had  been,  for  it  would  be  an 
exaggeration  to  say  it  was  even  a  ruin.  It 
was  literally  beaten  flat.  This  piece  of  land 
had  seen  the  German  invaders  for  the  last 
time.  We  learned  a  valuable  lesson  also, 
namely,  not  to  make  the  disposition  of  the 
men  too  thick.  In  this  operation  we  did,  and 
this,  and  the  fact  that  our  objective  was 
necessarily  limited  in  depth,  caused  us  casu- 
alties, as  the  enemy  artillery  was  not  reached 
and  opened  on  us  before  we  had  time  to  dig  in 
and  consoHdate  the  position  we  had  taken. 

Not  all  our  operations  were  necessarily  as 
successful  as  the  ones  I  have  mentioned  above. 
Raids  were  organized  and  drew  blanks.  At 
times  orders  would  reach  us  so  late  that  it  was 
exceedingly  difficult  to  attempt  their  execution 
with  much  chance  of  success.     For  example, 


13^  Average  Americans 

one  night  a  message  reached  me  that  a  prisoner 
was  wanted  for  identification  purposes  by 
morning. 

As  I  recall,  it  happened  as  follows:  The  tele- 
phone buzzed;  I  answered,  and  the  message 
came  over  the  wire  somewhat  in  this  fashion: 
'* Hello,  hello,  is  this  Hannibal?  Hannibal, 
there  is  a  friend  we  have  back  in  the  country 
[the  brigadier  general]  who  is  very  fond  of 
radishes  [prisoners].  He  wants  one  for  break- 
fast to-morrow  morning  without  fail/*  This 
reached  me  at  about  ten  or  eleven  o'clock. 
The  raid  had  to  be  executed  before  daylight. 
In  the  meantime  the  plans  had  to  be  made, 
the  company  commander  notified,  the  raid- 
ing party  chosen,  and  all  ranks  instructed. 
Add  to  this  that  everything  had  to  be  done 
during  the  dark  and  you  will  see  what  a 
difficult  proposition  it  was. 

I  got  hold  of  the  company  commander,  got 
the  men  organized,  telephoned  to  the  artillery, 
and  asked  for  five  minutes'  preparation  fire  on 
a  certain  point,  joined  the  raiding  party  and 
went  forward  with  it.     Then  the  first  of  a 


Montdidier  137 

string  of  misfortunes  happened.  On  account 
of  the  hurry  and  the  difficulty  of  transmission, 
the  artillery  mistook  the  coordinate  and 
fired  three  hundred  meters  too  short,  with  the 
result  that  an  effective  bit  of  preparation  fire 
was  wasted  on  my  own  raiding  party.  By  the 
time  this  preparatory  firing  upon  our  own 
raiding  party  was  over,  the  Germans  naturally 
understood  that  something  was  happening, 
for  why  would  we  strafe  our  own  front- 
line trenches  to  no  purpose?  The  result  was 
that  when  the  raid  went  over,  every  machine 
gun  in  the  area  was  watching  for  them.  They 
got  to.  the  opposing  wire,  ran  into  cross-fire, 
and,  after  various  casualties,  found  it  entirely 
impossible  to  get  by  the  enemy  wire,  and 
worked  their  way  back. 

As  they  were  working  back  a  senior  sergeant, 
Yarborough  by  name,  was  sitting  in  a  shell 
hole,  machine-gun  bullets  singing  by  him; 
checking  his  party  as  it  came  in.  Lieutenant 
Ridgely,  who  had  been  with  the  party,  came 
up  to  him.  As  he  crawled  along,  Yarborough 
said  to  him:  ''Lieutenant,  this  reminds  me  of 


138  Average  Americans 

a  story.  There  was  once  a  guy  who  decided  to 
commit  suicide  by  hanging  himself.  Just 
about  the  time  he  done  a  good  job  of  it  the 
rope  broke.  He  was  sitting  up  on  the  floor 
afterward  when  I  came  in,  a-rubbing  his  neck, 
and  when  he  saw  me,  all  he  said  was,  'Gee,  but 
that  was  dangerous. '*' 

During  this  period  the  German  ChS-teau- 
Thierry  drive  was  made,  again  scoring  a  clean 
break-through.  The  Second  Division,  which 
was  coming  up  to  our  rear  to  relieve  us,  was 
switched  and  thrown  in  front  of  the  enemy. 
Shortly  after  the  Huns  attacked  toward  the 
town  of  Compiegne,  in  an  endeavor  to 
straighten  out  the  reentrant  in  their  lines 
with  its  apex  at  Soissons.  This  latter  attack 
passed  by  on  our  right  flank. 

We,  of  course,  got  little  but  rumor.  In 
the  trenches  you  are  only  vitally  concerned 
with  what  happens  on  your  immediate  right 
and  left.  What  goes  on  ten  kilometers  away 
you  know  little  about,  and  generally  are  so 
busy  that  you  care  less.  "Sufficient  unto  the 
day  is  the  evil  thereof,"  is  a  proverb  that  holds 


Montdidier  139 

good  in  the  line.  In  this  last  instance  we 
were  more  interested  because  we  believed  that 
as  a  restilt  of  this  attack  the  next  point  to 
stand  a  hammering  would  be  where  we  were 
holding.  Our  policy,  which  held  good  through 
the  war,  was  developed  and  put  into  action  at 
this  time.  The  orders  were,  all  troops  should 
resist  to  the  last  on  the  ground  on  which  they 
stood.  All  movement  should  be  from  the 
rear  forward  and  not  to  the  rear.  Whenever 
an  element  in  the  front  line  got  in  trouble, 
the  elements  immediately  in  the  rear  would 
counter-attack.  This  extended  in  depth  back 
until  it  reached  the  division  reserve,  which,  as 
our  general  put  it,  ''would  move  up  with  him 
in  command,  and  after  that,  replacements 
would  be  necessary." 

During  the  time  when  the  Hims  were  mak- 
ing their  Chateau-Thierry  drive,  Blalock, 
afterward  sergeant  of  D  Company,  dis- 
tinguished himself  by  a  rather  remarkable 
piece  of  marksmanship.  Noticing  a  pigeon 
fluttering  over  the  trench,  he  drew  his  auto- 
matic pistol  and  killed  it  on  the  wing.     The 


140  Average  Americans 

bird  turned  out  to  be  a  carrier  pigeon  loosed  by 
one  of  the  attacking  regiments  the  Germans 
were  using  in  their  drive  toward  the  Marne, 
and  carried  a  message  giving  its  position  as 
twelve  kilometers  deeper  in  France  than  our 
higher  command  realized.  At  the  same  time 
it  identified  a  division  that  we  had  not  heard 
of  for  three  months,  and  indicated  by  the 
fact  that  it  was  signed  by  a  captain  who 
was  commanding  the  regiment  that  the  Ger- 
mans were  finding  it  difficult  to  replace  the 
losses  among  their  officers. 

Instances  occurred  constantly  which  showed 
the  spirit  of  both  officers  and  men.  A  recruit, 
arriving  one  night  as  a  replacement,  got  there 
just  in  time  for  a  heavy  strafing  that  the  Ger- 
mans were  delivering.  A  dud — -that  is  a  shell 
that  does  not  go  off — ^went  through  the  side  of 
the  dugout  and  took  both  of  his  legs  off  above 
the  knees.  These  duds  are  very  hot,  and  this 
one  cauterized  the  wounds  and  the  man  did  not 
bleed  to  death  at  once.  The  platoon  leader, 
seeing  that  something  had  gone  wrong  on  the 
right,  went  over  to  look  and  found  the  man 


Montdidier  141 

propped  up  against  the  side  of  the  trench. 
When  he  arrived,  Kraakmo,  the  private, 
looked  up  at  him  and  said,  "Lieutenant,  you 
have  lost  a  hell  of  a  good  soldier." 

Another  time,  when  we  were  moving  for- 
ward to  reenforce  a  threatened  part  of  the 
line,  a  sergeant  called  O'Rourke  was  hit  and 
badly  wounded.  As  he  fell  I  turned  around 
and  said:  ''Well,  O'Rourke,  they've  got  you." 
''They  have  sir,"  he  answered,  "but  we  have 
had  a  damned  good  time." 

Sergeant  Steidel  of  A  Company  was  a 
fine  up-standing  soldier  and  won  the  D.  S.  C. 
and  the  Medaille  Militaire.  He  used  to  stay 
with  me  as  my  own  personal  bodyguard 
when  I  was  away  for  any  reason  from  head- 
quarters. Steidel  was  afraid  of  nothing.  He 
was  always  willing  and  always  clear-headed. 
When  I  wanted  a  report  of  an  exact  situation, 
Steidel  was  the  man  whom  I  could  send  to 
get  it.  We  used  to  have  daylight  patrols. 
One  day  a  patrol  of  green  men  went  out  to 
obtain  certain  information.  They  were  stam- 
peded  by   something   and   came   back   into 


142  Average  Americans 

the  part  of  the  trench  where  Steidel  was. 
He  w^ent  out  alone  as  an  example  to  them, 
and  came  back  with  the  information. 

Lieutenant  Baxter,  whom  I  have  men- 
tioned before,  and  a  private  called  Upton 
patrolled  across  an  almost  impossible  shell- 
beaten  area  to  estabhsh  connection  with  the 
battalion  on  our  left.  They  both  went  out 
cheerfully,  and  both,  by  some  streak  of  luck, 
got  back  unhurt.  Baxter,  on  returning,  re- 
ported to  ask  if  there  was  any  other  duty  of 
a  like  nature  that  he  could  undertake  right 
away. 

One  night,  when  we  were  shifting  a  com- 
pany from  support  to  a  position  on  our  left 
flank,  a  heavy  bombardment  came  on.  A 
ntmiber  of  the  men  were  killed  and  wounded 
while  moving  up.  One  sergeant,  by  the  name 
of  Nestowicz,  bom  in  Germany,  was  badly  hit 
and  left  for  dead.  I  was  standing  in  the 
bushes  on  the  side  of  the  valley  waiting  for 
reports  when  I  saw  this  man  moving  unstead- 
idly  toward  me.  I  asked  him  what  the  matter 
was,  and  he  replied  that  he  had  been  hit,  his 


Montdidier  143 

company  had  gone  on  and  left  him,  and 
he  had  come  up  to  ask  me  where  he  cotild 
find  them.  I  said,  "Hadn't  you  better  go 
to  the  first  aid,  sergeant?''  He  said,  "No 
sir,  I  am  not  hit  that  bad  and  I  want  to  go 
back  to  my  company.  It  looks  as  if  they'd 
need  me." 

Sergeant  Dobbs,  of  B  Company,  badly 
wounded  by  a  hand  grenade,  wrote  me  a  let- 
ter, saying  that  he  was  well  enough  to  come 
back,  but  the  doctors  would  not  let  him 
come,  and  could  not  I  do  something  about 
it.  I  took  a  chance  and  wrote,  telling  the 
medical  authorities  I  would  give  him  light 
work  if  they  let  him  come  back  to  the  outfit. 
Dobbs  turned  up,  was  wounded  again,  and 
the  last  I  heard  of  him  was  a  letter  written 
in  late  October,  saying  that  he  had  never 
had  the  opportunity  to  thank  me  for  getting 
him  back.  Mind  you,  getting  him  back 
merely  meant,  in  his  case,  giving  him  the 
chance  to  get  shot  up  again  before  he  was 
thoroughly  cured  of  his  first  woimd.  He 
finished  by  saying  that  he  was  in  bad  trouble 


144  Average  Americans 

now,  as  part  of  his  nose  had  gone  the  last 
time  he  was  wounded  and  they  would  not 
even  keep  him  in  France,  but  were  sending 
him  back  to  the  United  States.  His  last  line 
was  the  hope  that  he  would  get  well  soon 
so  he  could  get  back  to  the  outfit. 

There  was  a  young  fellow  called  Fenessey 
from  Rochester,  New  York,  in  B  Com- 
pany. He  was  being  educated  for  the  Cath- 
olic priesthood.  A$  soon  as  war  was  declared 
he  enlisted  and  came  over  with  the  regiment. 
He  did  well  and  was  a  good  man  to  have 
around  the  command  because  of  his  earnest- 
ness and  humor.  He  was  eventually  made 
corporal  of  an  automatic-rifle  squad.  His 
rifle  was  placed  in  the  tip  of  a  small  patch  of 
wood  guarding  a  little  valley  that  ran  back 
toward  the  center  of  our  position.  These 
valleys  were  important,  as  down  them  the 
Germans  generally  delivered  thrusts.  The 
Huns,  one  morning,  strafed  heavily  our  posi- 
tion. Fenessey's  automatic  rifle  was  destroyed 
and  he  was  hard  hit,  his  right  arm  torn  off 
and  his  right  side  mangled.     Fenessey  knew 


Montdidier  i45 

he  was  dying.  The  strafing  stopped,  the  first- 
aid  men  worked  in,  and  Fenessey  was  carried 
to  the  rear.  They  heard  him  mumble  some- 
thing, Hstened  carefully,  and  found  he  wished 
to  be  taken  to  his  company  commander. 
They  carried  him  back  to  Lieutenant  Holmes. 
When  he  saw  Lieutenant  Holmes,  he  said: 
"Sir,  my  automatic  rifle  has  been  destroyed. 
I  think  the  company  commander  should  send 
one  up  immediately  to  take  its  place."  Fen- 
essey died  ten  minutes  later. 

Quick  promotion,  unfortunately  not  in 
rank,  simply  in  responsibility,  occurred  all 
the  time.  Of  the  four  infantry  company 
commanders  which  had  started,  only  one 
was  surviving  when  we  left  this  sector.  In 
each  case  a  lieutenant  took  command  of  the 
company  and  did  it  in  the  finest  shape  pos- 
sible. Lieutenants  Gathers  and  Jackson  were 
killed  here  at  the  head  of  their  platoons, 
and  Lieutenants  Smith  and  Gustafson  died 
from  the  effect  of  wounds.  Lieutenant  Freml, 
who  was  killed  in  a  raid,  had  numerous  narrow 
escapes. 


H^  Average  Americans 

I  remember  one  time  we  were  going  together 
over  the  top  on  a  reconnoitering  party  pre- 
paratory to  redisposition  of  the  troops.  Freml 
had  as  his  personal  orderly  a  very  bright  little 
Jew  from  San  Francisco — Drabkin  by  name, 
who  had  kept  a  junk-shop.  The  little  fellow 
seemed  to  run  true  to  former  training,  for  he 
always  went  around  festooned  with  pistols, 
''blinkers,'*  notebooks,  and  everything  con- 
ceivable. A  shell  hit  beside  them,  Freml  be- 
ing between  this  man  and  the  shell.  Freml  was 
untouched,  but  the  man  was  torn  to  pieces. 

One  young  fellow  seemed,  for  a  while,  to 
bear  a  sort  of  charmed  life.  Unfortunately 
this  did  not  last,  and  he  was  killed  in  the  battle 
of  Soissons.  He  was  very  proud  of  the  things 
that  had  happened  to  him.  One  night,  while 
I  was  inspecting  the  front  trenches,  he  said 
to  me,  "Major,  I  have  been  buried  by  shells 
twice  to-day.  The  last  time  I  only  had  one 
arm  sticking  out  so  they  could  find  me.  All 
the  other  men  in  the  dugout  have  been  killed 
and  I  ain't  even  been  scratched." 

It  was  here  that  Lieutenant  Ridgely  earned 


Montdidier  147 

for  himself  the  nickname  of  the  idiot  strate- 
gist, which  he  went  by  for  a  long  while  in 
the  battalion.  The  Huns  were  putting  up  a 
pretty  lively  demonstration  on  our  left.  A 
message  reached  me  that  they  were  attacking. 
I  made  my  preparations  to  counter-attack,  if 
necessary,  and  sent  runners  to  the  various 
units  concerned  to  advise  them  of  this  plan. 
The  runner  who  was  bringing  the  message  to 
Ridgely's  platoon  lost  it  in  the  shuffle.  Run- 
ners are  made  to  repeat  messages  verbally  to 
take  care  of  contingencies  just  like  this.  How- 
ever, this  does  not  always  work,  and  when 
he  got  to  Ridgely,  the  only  message  he  could 
remember  was,  "The  Major  orders  you  to 
counter-attack,  and  help  the  troops  on  our 
left." 

It  seemed  a  pretty  forlorn  business  to 
counter-attack  with  one  platoon,  but  neither 
Ridgely  nor  the  platoon  considered  this  was 
anything  which  really  concerned  them.  They 
hastily  formed  up  and  moved  to  the  left. 
They  got  over  and  found  that  the  Germans 
had  been  successfully  repulsed  and  that  they 


148  Average  Americans 

were  among  our  own  troops.  The  Captain  in 
charge  of  the  company  told  Ridgely  to  go 
back.  Ridgely  thought  for  a  moment  and 
said,  "  No,  my  Major's  orders  were  to  counter- 
attack to  assist  the  troops  on  the  left,"  and  it 
was  only  with  difficulty  that  they  persuaded 
him  that  he  must  not  stage  a  little  private 
adventure  then  and  there  against  the  German 
lines. 

In  this  sector  we  experienced  our  most 
severe  gas  attacks.  It  is  a  thoroughly  unpleas- 
ant thing  to  hear  gas  shells  coming  over  in 
quantity.  Often  an  attack  begins  much  as 
follows:  It  draws  toward  morning;  the  dig- 
ging parties  file  back  toward  their  positions. 
Suddenly  shelling  begins  to  increase  in  vol- 
ume. Private  Bill  Smith  notes  a  sort  of  a 
warbling  sound  overhead  and  remarks  to  Pri- 
vate Bill  Jones,  ''Gee,  Bill,  they're  gassing 
us."  Next,  reports  come  in  from  various 
sections  that  they  are  gassing  Fontaine  Woods, 
Cantigny  Woods,  and  the  valley  between. 
You  stand  out  on  some  point  of  vantage  and 
listen  to  the  shells  singing  over  and  bursting. 


Montdidier  149 

As  day  dawns  you  see  a  thick  gray  mist  spread- 
ing itself  through  the  valley.  The  men  have 
slipped  on  their  gas  masks.  The  question 
now  is,  what's  up?  Just  meanness  on  the  part 
of  the  Huns,  or  is  it  part  of  some  ulterior 
design  to  straighten  the  salient  and  nip  off 
the  two  points  of  woods  we  are  holding? 
How  heavy  is  the  gassing  to  be  ?  How  quickly 
will  the  wind  carry  it  away?  A  thousand  and 
one  other  questions. 

You  send  your  gas  officer  up  to  test.  You 
go  up  yourself  and  generally  know  as  much  as 
the  gas  officer.  Our  general  experience  was 
that  the  first  gas  casualties  we  had  were  the 
gas  officers.  You  decide  that,  as  nothing 
has  developed  up  to  this  time,  it  is  probable 
that  if  any  attack  is  planned  by  the  Huns  it  is 
not  intended  to  take  place  this  morning.  You 
get  your  men  out  of  the  heavily  gassed  areas 
and  try  to  determine  where  is  the  best  place 
for  them  to  be  well  protected,  to  cover  practi- 
cally the  same  territory,  and  not  to  be  too 
much  exposed  to  the  gas.  By  this  time  they 
have  been  sweating  in  their  gas  masks  for 


150  Average  Americans 

three  hours  or  more  with  the  usual  number  of 
fools  and  accidents  contributing  to  the  casu- 
alties. You  carefully  redispose  them  while  a 
desultory  bombardment  by  the  Germans  adds 
to  the  general  joy  of  life.  You  get  them  redis- 
posed.  The  wind  changes,  the  gas  is  carried 
to  the  position  where  they  are.  You  have 
to  change  them  again.  To  add  to  the  general 
complications,  the  chow  which  was  brought 
up  last  night  is  spoiled.  It  has  been  in  the 
gassed  area  and  the  men  must  go  hungry 
imtil  the  next  evening.  You  come  back  to 
your  dugout  and  find  that  in  some  mysterious 
way  the  gas  has  gone  down  into  the  dugout, 
so  you  prop  yourself  in  the  corner  of  the 
trench  and  carry  on  from  there.  Altogether 
it  is  a  happy  and  joyful  occasion.  Your 
one  consolation  rests  in  the  fact  that  your 
artillery  is  now  earnestly  engaged  in  retali- 
ating on  their  infantry. 

Speaking  of  artillery,  there  is  one  thing 
that  always  used  to  fill  us,  the  infantry,  with 
woe  and  grief.  A  paper  would  come  up,  read- 
ing, "Nothing  to  report  on  the  (blank)  sector 


Montdidier  151 

except  severe  artillery  duels."  ''Severe  artil- 
lery duels"  to  the  uninitiated  means  that  the 
opposing  artillery  fights  one  with  the  other. 
This,  however,  is  not  the  custom.  Your 
artillery  shells  their  infantry  hard  and  then 
their  artillery  shells  your  infantry  hard.  This 
is  an  artillery  duel.  The  infantry  is  on  the 
receiving  end  in  both  cases. 

Our  artillery  was  particularly  good.  Gen- 
eral Simimerall,  who  commanded,  I  have  been 
told,  preached  to  his  men  that  the  primary 
duty  of  that  arm  was  to  help  the  infantry,  and 
that  to  do  this  properly  in  all  war  of  move- 
ment they  should  follow  the  advancing  troops 
as  closely  as  possible.  Once  I  saw  a  battery  of 
the  Seventh  F.  A.  wheel  up  and  go  into  action 
not  more  than  two  hundred  yards  from  the 
front  line.  We,  on  our  part,  endeavored  to  call 
uselessly  on  the  artillery  as  little  as  possible. 

At  times  our  own  artillery  would  drop  a  few 
'^shorts"  into  us  but  this  is  unavoidable  and 
the  infantry  felt  too  strongly  what  had  been 
done  for  them  to  pay  much  attention. 

In  one  of  the  German  dugouts  we  captured, 


152  Average  Americans 

a  lieutenant  told  me  he  found  a  sign  reading, 
"We  fear  no  one  but  God  and  our  own 
artillery." 

Sector  materiel  is  something  that  always 
adds  interest  to  the  life  of  the  officers  in 
trench  warfare.  Sector  materiel  consists  of 
all  varieties  of  articles,  from  tins  of  bully  beef 
and  rusty  grenades  to  quantities  of  grubby, 
illegible  orders  and  lists,  and  mangled  maps. 
These  remain  in  the  sector  and  are  turned  over 
by  each  unit  to  the  next  succeeding.  Theo- 
retically a  careful  inventory  is  made  and  each 
individual  article  checked  each  time. 

Moreover,  to  keep  the  higher  command 
satisfied,  there  must  be  maps — legions  of 
maps.  These  maps  do  not  have  to  be  accu- 
rate. Indeed,  they  cannot  possibly  be  accu- 
rate, but  they  must  be  beautifully  marked 
in  red,  blue,  yellow,  and  green  with  a  pretty 
"legend"  attached.  The  higher  command 
never  knows  if  the  maps  are  correct,  but 
they  do  know  if  they  are  not  beautifully 
marked.  In  each  sector  there  must  be,  first, 
a  map  indicating  where  all  the  trenches  are. 


Montdidier  153 

You,  as  commanding  officer,  are  probably 
the  only  person  who  knows  and  you  are  too 
busy  to  put  them  down.  Then  there  must 
also  be  maps  indicating  work  in  progress. 
Very  generally  they  like  a  map  to  be  turned 
in  every  day  showing  what  work  has  been 
done  during  the  night.  How  they  expect 
anyone  to  do  this  is  beyond  anyone  who  has 
done  it.  Further,  maps  must  show  aban- 
doned trenches;  still  further,  there  must  be 
what  is  known  to  the  high  command  as  maps 
indicating  "alternate  gas  positions."  "Al- 
ternate gas  positions"  are  impossible  to  indi- 
cate. Everything  depends  on  which  way 
the  wind  is  blowing  and  what  place  is  gassed. 
But  the  higher  command  wants  these  maps 
and  it  is  simpler  to  placate  them  than  to  fight 
with  them.  I  had  a  fine  artillery  liaison  officer, 
called  Chandler.  He  had  had  some  training 
in  topography  and  he  kindly  agreed  to  take 
over  the  map  question.  When  a  message 
came  up  from  the  rear  dema^ing  a  map 
showing  alternate  gas  position,  he  would  get 
out  his  stack  of  blue  pencils  and  make,  with 


154  Average  Americans 

exquisite  care,  the  nicest  and  most  symmetrical 
blue  lines.  He  would  number  them  in  black,  ar- 
range a  margin  between,  putting  green  marks 
and  yellow  marks  and  red  marks  for  other 
units;  fold  them  up  and  send  them  back. 
It  was  quite  simple  for  him.  He  did  not  have 
to  consult  anyone,  it  wasn't  necessary  to  re- 
connoiter  the  ground ;  the  map  would  go  in  with 
the  morning  report  and  all  would  be  happy. 

Another  sport  indulged  in  by  the  higher 
command  was  to  change  the  main  line  of 
defense  and  re-allot  the  defense  system  of 
the  sector.  To  be  really  qualified  to  do  this, 
you  should  on  no  account  have  any  knowl- 
edge of  the  actual  terrain.  Indeed,  I  think 
in  all  my  experience  I  never  received  a  defense 
map  from  the  higher  command  where  the 
individual  making  the  map  had  been  over  the 
ground.  All  that  you  do,  if  you  are  the  higher 
command,  is  to  get  a  beautiful  large  scale  map, 
draw  broad  lines  across  it  and  then  dotted 
lines  to  indicate  boundaries.  For  nearly  a 
month  I  defended  a  sector  where  the  map  was 
entirely  wrong.     Two  patches  of  woods  were 


Montdidler  155 

represented  as  in  a  valley,  whereas  they  were 
on  a  hill.  This  worried  neither  the  higher 
command  nor  me.  The  higher  command  did 
not  know  th^t  the  map  was  wrong;  they 
had  sent  me  their  beautiful  little  plans.  I 
sent  them  equally  beautiful  ones  without 
debating  the  matter,  and  all  were  satisfied. 

I  remember  one  general  who  commanded 
the  brigade  of  which  I  was  a  member.  His 
hobby  was  switch  lines.  A  switch  line  is 
simply  a  trench  running  approximately  per- 
pendicular to  the  front,  where  a  defensive 
position  can  be  taken  up  in  case  the  enemy 
breaks  through  on  the  right  or  left  and  where- 
by you  form  a  defensive  flank.  The  old  boy 
would  come  up,  solemn  as  a  judge,  and  ask  me 
where  my  switch  lines  were  to  be  put.  With 
equal  solemnity  I  would  explain  to  him. 
After  talking  for  a  half  an  hour  he  would 
ask  confidentially,  ''Major,  what  is  a  switch 
line?'*  With  equal  solemnity  I  would  explain 
to  him  and  conversation  would  cease.  Three 
days  thereafter  we  would  go  through  the 
same  thing  again.     The  old  fellow  had  heard 


156  Average  Americans 

someone  talking  about  a  switch  line  once 
and  somehow  felt  that  it  counted  a  hundred 
in  game  to  have  one. 

Another  indoor  sport  of  the  high  com- 
mand was  a  report  for  plans  of  defense.  A 
plan  of  defense  consisted  of  maps  and  long 
screeds  indicating  just  where  counter-attacks 
were  to  be  launched  when  parts  of  the  front 
line  were  taken  by  the  enemy.  They  were 
beautiful  things,  pages  and  pages  long.  They 
were  as  gay  in  color  as  Joseph's  proverbial  coat, 
and  when  things  broke,  circumstances  were 
always  such  that  you  did  something  entirely 
different  from  any  of  the  plans. 

Still  another  sport  was  patrol  reports  and 
patrolHng.  The  patrols  were,  according  to 
instructions,  arranged  for  by  the  higher  com- 
mand because  the  higher  command  knew 
nothing  and  could  know  nothing  of  the  par- 
ticular details  that  govern  in  any  individual 
section  of  the  front.  They  would  send  down 
to  the  battalion  commander  and  demand 
statements,  for  their  revision,  as  to  what  his 
patrols  were  to  be  for  the  night,  when  they 


Montdidier  157 

were  to  go  out,  what  they  were  to  do,  etc. 
The  battaUon  commander  would  send  them 
his  patrol  sheet  and  then  by  the  above-men- 
tioned code  they  would  endeavor  to  confer 
with  him  and  debate  the  advisability  of  certain 
of  his  actions.  Again  experience  taught  the 
way  out.  You  agreed  with  everything  they 
said,  and  did  what  you  originally  intended. 
Next  day  they  would  want  a  map  indicating 
exactly  the  points  traversed  by  the  patrol. 
Knee-deep  in  water  in  a  filthy  dugout,  your 
adjutant  or  intelligence  officer  would  make 
them  this  map.  The  map,  like  most  maps, 
was  for  decorative  purposes.  No  patrol  wan- 
dering in  a  pitch-black  night  in  the  rain,  stum- 
bling on  dead  men,  snarling  itself  in  wire,  lying 
flat  on  its  bellies  when  the  Hun  flares  shot  up, 
could  possibly  tell  exactly  where  it  had  gone. 
This  was,  happily,  not  known  to  the  higher 
command,  so  they  rested  in  blissful  ignorance. 
I  cannot  leave  the  question  of  maps  with- 
out discussing  the  all-absorbing  topic  of  co5r- 
dinates.  A  coordinate  is  a  group  of  numbers 
which  indicate  an  exact  point  on  the  map. 


158  Average  Americans 

If  you  have  firmly  got  the  system  in  your  head, 
you  can  find  the  point  accurately  on  the  map. 
Any  man,  however,  who  thinks  he  can  go  and 
sit  on  a  coordinate  on  the  actual  ground  is 
either  a  lunatic  or  belongs  to  the  higher  com- 
mand. Incidentally,  in  demanding  reports  of 
patrols,  altema!te  gas  positions,  etc.,  the  order 
usually,  reads,  "Battalion  commander  will 
furnish  reports  with  coordinates." 

When  I  was  recovering  from  a  wound  in 
my  leg,  I  attended  for  two  weeks  our  staff 
college.  This  college  was  well  conceived 
and  did  excellent  work,  but  nowhere  w-ere 
more  evident  the  grievous  faults  of  our  unpre- 
paredness.  A  good  staff  officer  should  have 
had  practical  experience  with  troops.  If  he 
has  not  had  this  experience  he  takes  the  thumb 
rules  too  literally  and  does  not  realize  that  they 
are  simply  rules  to  govern  in  general.  We 
had  practically  no  officers  with  this  experience. 
The  result  was  that  the  students,  good  fellows, 
most  of  them  men  who  had  never  been  in 
action,  attached  too  much  importance  to  the 
figures  and  did  not  realize  it  was  the  theory 


Montdidier  159 

that  was  important.  Infantry,  according  to 
staff  problems,  always  marches  four  kilometers 
an  hour.  March  graphics  are  drawn  with 
columns  which  clear  points,  with  three  him- 
dred  meters  to  spare  between  them  and  the  head 
of  the  next  coliimn  after  both  columns  have 
marched  ten  kilometers  to  the  point  of  junc- 
tion. No  account  is  taken  of  the  fact  that 
rarely,  if  ever,  does  infantry  exceed  in  rate 
of  march  three  and  one  half  kilometers  under 
the  ordinary  conditions  prevailing  in  France, 
and  that  bad  weather,  bad  roads,  etc.,  bring  it 
to  three  kilometers.  What  a  commanding 
officer  of  troops  must  bear  in  mind  is  not 
simply  getting  his  troops  to  a  given  point, 
but  getting  them  to  that  given  point  in  such 
shape  that  they  are  able  to  perform  the 
task  set  them  when  they  arrive.  Further- 
more, roads  given  on  the  map  are  accepted 
with  the  sublime  faith  of  a  child.  I  remem- 
ber once  having  my  regiment  on  the  march 
for  twelve  hours  because  the  trail  on  which 
we  had  all  been  ordered  to  proceed  necessi- 
tated the  men  going  single  file,  and  the  in- 


i6o  Average  Americans 

fantry  of  a  division  single  file  stretches  out 
indefinitely. 

Our  troops  had  now  begun  to  arrive  in 
France  in  large  numbers.  It  was  more  than 
a  year  after  the  commencement  of  the  war 
before  this  was  effected.  The  inability  of 
our  national  administration  to  bring  itself 
to  the  point  where  it  considered  patriotism 
as  above  politics  was  largely  responsible  for 
this.  Every  move  forward  toward  the  active 
pushing  of  the  war  was  the  result  of  the 
pressure  of  the  people  on  Washington.  When 
I  say  that  our  troops  were  coming  across  in 
large  nimibers,  let  it  be  borne  in  mind  that, 
though  the  men  did  come,  munitions  and  weap- 
ons of  war  did  not.  The  Browning  auto- 
matic rifie,  for  example,  to  my  mind  one  of  the 
greatest  weapons  developed  by  the  war,  was 
invented  in  the  United  States  in  the  simimer 
of  1917.  When  the  war  finished  it  had  just 
been  placed  for  the  first  time  in  the  hands  of  a 
limited  nimiber  of  our  divisions;  my  division, 
the  First,  never  had  them  until  a  month  after 
the  armistice.    We  used  the  old  French  chau- 


Montdidier  i6i 

chat,  a  very  inferior  weapon.  None  of  our 
airplanes  had  come,  and  the  death  of  many  of 
our  young  men  was  directly  traceable  to  this, 
as  they,  of  necessity,  used  inferior  machines. 
Our  cannon  was  and  remained  French  and  its 
ammunition  was  French.  Our  troops  were  at 
times  issued  British  uniforms  and  many  of 
the  men  objected  strenuously  to  wearing  them 
on  account  of  the  buttons  with  the  crown 
stamped  on  them.  Our  supply  of  boots,  up  to 
and  including  the  march  into  Germany,  was 
composed  in  part  of  British  boots.  These 
boots  had  a  low  instep  and  caused  much  foot 
trouble.  These  are  facts  that  no  amount  of 
words  can  cover,  no  speeches  explain  away. 


CHAPTER  VIII 


SOISSONS 


"And  drunk  delight  of  battle  with  my  peers, 
Far  on  the  ringing  plains  of  windy  Troy." 

Tennyson. 

PEARLY  in  July  rttmors  reached  us  that  we 
were  going  to  be  relieved.  At  first  we  did 
not  attach  any  importance  to  this,  as  we  had 
heard  many  rumors  of  a  like  nature  during  the 
months  we  had  been  in  the  sector.  At  last, 
however,  the  French  officers  came  up  to  re- 
connoiter,  and  we  knew  it  was  true.  We  were 
relieved  and  marched  back  to  some  little  vil- 
lage near  the  old  French  town  of  Beauvais. 
Everyone  was  as  happy  as  a  king.  Here  we 
heard  that  the  plan  was  to  form  a  corps  of  the 
Spcond  Division  and  our  division,  train  and 
recruit  them  for  a  month,  and  make  an  offen- 
sive with  us  some  time  late  in  August  or  Sep- 
tember.    General  BuUard,  our  division  com- 

162 


Soissons  163 

mander  who  had  been,  in  turn,  colonel  of  the 
Twenty-eighth  Infantry,  brigadier  general 
commanding  the  Second  Brigade,  and  division 
commander,  was  to  be  corps  commander. 
This  pleased  us  very  much,  as  we  had  great 
confidence  in  him. 

We  had  been  in  these  villages  only  for  a 
few  days  when  orders  reached  us  to  entruck 
and  proceed  to  some  towns  only  a  short  dis- 
tance from  Paris.  This  appealed  to  us  all, 
for  if  we  were  going  to  train  and  rest  for  a 
month,  no  more  delightful  place  could  be  chosen 
for  one  and  all  than  the  vicinity  of  Paris. 

The  buses  arrived  and  all  night  we  jolted 
southwest  through  the  forest  of  Chantilly. 
By  morning  we  arrived  and  detrucked  and 
the  brown  columns  wound  through  the  fresh 
green  landscape  to  the  charming  little  gray 
stone  towns.  The  town  where  we  were  to 
stay  was  called  Ver.  It  was  built  on  rolling 
country  and  its  gray  cobble-paved  streets 
twisted  and  wound  up  hill  and  down  through 
a  maze  of  picturesque  gray  houses  in  whose 
doors  well-dressed,  bright-cheeked  women  and 


i64  Average  Americans 

children  stood  watching  us.  On  the  hill  were 
the  remains  of  an  old  wall  and  chateau,  and 
at  the  foot,  through  a  broad  meadow  shaded 
with  trees,  a  fair-sized  brook  rippled.  Jean 
Jacques  Rousseau  lived  and  wrote  there. 
How  he  could  have  been  such  a  hypocrite  and 
have  lived  in  such  a  charming  place  is  more 
than  I  can  see. 

The  men  were  delighted.  ''Say,  Buddie, 
this  is  some  town;  look  at  that  stream!" — 
''Bonne  billets."— "Let's  fight  the  rest  of  the 
war  here" — ^were  some  of  the  remarks  I  heard 
as  the  column  swung  in. 

Everything  was  ideal.  The  stream  above 
mentioned  furnished  a  bathtub  for  the  com- 
mand. We  had  had  no  opportunity  for  about 
two  months  to  thoroughly  bathe,  as  we  had 
been  on  active  work  the  entire  time,  and  you 
can  imagine  in  just  what  condition  we  were. 
To  put  it  in  the  words  of  one  of  my  company 
commanders,  "The  command  was  as  lousy 
as  pet  coons."  The  first  day  we  spent  in 
orienting  ourselves,  getting  the  kitchens  ar- 
ranged and  the  billets  comfortable.     Mean- 


Solssons  165 

while  the  troops  were  down  bathing  in  the 
stream,  to  the  admiring  interest  of  the  French 
inhabitants,  who  lined  the  bridge.  To  our 
staid  Americans  the  unconventional  attitude 
of  interest  in  bathing  troops  displayed  by  the 
French  inhabitants  of  all  ages  and  both  sexes 
was  a  source  of  constant  embarrassment.  I 
have  known  a  platoon  sergeant  to  guide  his  men 
to  quite  a  distant  point  to  take  their  baths. 
When  I  asked  him  why,  he  replied,  "Sir,  it 
isn't  decent  with  all  them  frogs  looking  on." 
That  evening,  at  officers'  meeting,  every- 
one was  on  the  crest  of  the  wave,  ''sitting  on 
the  world,"  as  the  doughboy  puts  it.  The 
officers  established  their  mess  in  various 
houses,  and  I  remember  to  this  day  Lieutenant 
Kern,  as  gallant  an  officer  as  ever  it  was  my 
pleasure  to  know,  who  was  mortally  wounded 
some  three  days  from  this  time,  telling  me  that 
they  had  the  prettiest  French  girl  in  all  of 
France  as  a  waitress  at  his  company  mess  and 
that  they  were  all  going  to  give  her  lessons  in 
English.  We  talked  over  training  and  made 
all  arrangements  for  a  long  stay.     The  only 


i66  Average  Americans 

dissenting  voice  was  that  of  the  medical  oflficer, 
Captain  E.  D.  Morgan.  He,  Cassandra-like, 
prophesied  that  the  town  was  too  nice  and 
we  would  be  moved  soon. 

Next  morning,  while  I  was  out  going  over 
the  village,  selecting  drill  grounds  and  plan- 
ning the  schedule,  a  motorcycle  orderly  arrived 
and  handed  me  a  message  which  read,  ''You 
will  be  prepared  to  entruck  your  battalion  at 
two  this  afternoon. ' '  This  meant  no  rest  for  us. 
We  realized  that  a  move  on  our  part  now 
meant  one  thing  and  one  thing  only,  that 
something  serious  had  arisen,  and  that  we  were 
going  in  again.  Rimior  had  been  rife  for  two 
or  three  days  past  that  the  big  Hun  offensive 
was  about  to  start  again.  In  the  army,  among 
the  front-line  troops,  practically  all  you  get  is 
rumor  about  what  is  happening  daily.  Where 
the  nmior  starts  from  it  is  impossible  to  say, 
but  it  travels  like  lightning.  Officers'  call 
was  sounded,  and  when  they  had  assembled, 
I  read  them  the  order  and  told  them  it  was 
my  opinion  we  were  going  into  a  big  battle 
right  away.     The  men  were  immediately  as- 


Soissons  167 

sembled  and  told  the  same  thing.  We  always 
felt  that  all  information  possible  should  be 
given  to  the  men.  Instead  of  the  command 
being  downcast  at  the  idea  of  leaving  their 
well-deserved  rest,  their  spirits  rose.  Imme- 
diately bustle  and  preparation  was  evident 
everywhere  in  the  town. 

By  one  o'clock  the  truck  train  was  creaking 
into  place  on  the  road.  Oddly  enough  the 
truck  train  was  made  up  of  White  trucks, 
made  in  Cleveland,  with  Indo-Chinese  drivers 
and  was  under  the  command  of  a  French 
officer.  The  troops  filed  by  in  columns  of 
twos  toward  the  entrucking  point.  The  men 
were  laughing  and  joking.  "They  can't  do 
without  us  now,  Bill."  "Say,  Nick,  look 
over  there"  (pointing  toward  a  grave  yard), 
"them's  the  rest  billets  of  this  battalion,  and 
that"  (indicating  a  rather  imposing  tomb)  "is 
the  battalion  headquarters."  Many  of  them 
were  singing  the  national  anthem  of  the 
doughboy.  Hail!  Hail!  the  Gang's  All  Here. 

I  got  into  the  automobile  of  the  French 
commander  of  the  train,  taking  with  me  Lieu- 


168  Average  Americans 

tenant  Kem,  as  he  was  pretty  well  played  out 
and  I  wanted  to  spare  him  as  much  as  possible. 
The  French  train  commander  had  no  idea 
what  our  ultimate  destination  was.  All  he 
knew  was  a  route  for  about  sixty  kilometers, 
at  the  end  of  which  he  was  to  report  for  further 
orders  at  a  little  town.  As  we  ran  up  and 
down  the  column  of  trucks  checking  the  train 
to  make  sure  that  all  units  were  present  and 
all  properly  loaded,  the  men  were  singing  and 
cheering. 

As  all  afternoon  we  jolted  northward  through 
clouds  of  dust,  rumors  came  in  picked  up  from 
French  officers  on  the  roadside.  The  Hun  had 
attacked  in  force  east  and  west  of  Rheims  in  a 
desperate  attempt  to  break  the  French  army 
in  two.  East  of  Rheims  they  had  met  with 
a  stone- wall  resistance  by  Gouraud's  army 
and  been  hurled  back  with  heavy  loss.  West 
of  Rheims  their  attack  had  been  more  success- 
ful, and  they  were  reported  to  have  broken 
through,  crossed  the  Mame,  and  to  be  now 
moving  on  ChMons. 

As  night  fell  the  jolting  truck  train  pressed 


Soissons  169 

ever  farther  north.  At  the  regulating  station, 
by  the  shaded  flare  of  an  electric  torch,  we 
got  our  orders :  we  were  to  proceed  to  Palesne. 
We  guessed  on  receiving  them  what  our  mis- 
sion was.  We  were  pushing  straight  north 
into  the  reentrant  into  the  German  lines,  at 
the  peak  of  which  was  Soissons.  Our  destina- 
tion was  a  large  wood.  We  realized  that  we 
were  probably  to  form  part  of  an  offensive  to 
be  made  against  the  Hun  right  flank,  which 
should  have  as  its  object,  first,  by  pressure  at 
this  point,  to  stop  the  attack  on  Chalons; 
second,  if  it  was  possible,  to  penetrate  far 
enough  to  force  the  evacuation  of  the  Chateau- 
Thierry  salient  by  threatening  their  lines  of 
communication.  In  the  early  dawn  the  troops 
detrucked,  sloshed  through  the  mud,  and 
bivouacked  in  the  woods.  Every  care  possible 
was  taken  to  get  the  troops  under  cover  of  the 
woods  and  the  trucks  away  before  daylight 
in  order  to  avoid  any  possible  chance  of  ob- 
servation by  the  Germans. 

All  day  we  became  more  certain  that  our 
guess  as  to  our  probable  mission  was  correct. 


I70  Average  Americans 

We  heard  that  the  Foreign  Legion  and  the 
Second  American  Division  had  come  up  on 
our  right.  We  knew  that  our  division,  the 
Foreign  Legion,  and  the  Second  Division, 
would  not  be  concentrated  at  the  same  point 
if  it  did  not  mean  a  real  offensive. 

Soon  after  the  orders  for  the  attack  were 
given  us.  Apparently  the  idea  was  to  stake 
all  on  one  throw.  Marshal  Foch  had  decided 
on  a  counter-offensive  in  this  part  and  had 
delegated  to  General  Mangin,  commander  of 
the  French  army,  the  task  of  putting  it  into 
execution.  Mangin  desired  to  make  this  of- 
fensive, if  possible,  a  complete  surprise.  All 
care  was  used  that  no  unnecessary  movement 
took  place  among  our  troops  in  the  back  area. 
We  were  not  to  take  over  the  position  from  the 
French  troops  holding  the  front  line,  as  was 
generally  customary  for  the  attacking  troops 
before  an  action,  but  rather  to  march  up  on 
the  night  of  the  offensive  and  attack  through 
them.  Fortunately,  from  the  point  of  view 
of  secrecy,  the  night  before  the  attack  it 
rained  cats  and  dogs.     The  infantry  slogged 


Soissons  171 

through  the  mud,  up  roads  cut  to  pieces  by 
trucks  and  over  trails  ankle  deep  in  water. 
The  artillery  skittered  and  strained  into  place. 
The  tanks  clanked  and  rattled  up,  break- 
ing the  columns  and  tearing  up  what  was  left 
of  the  road.  It  was  so  dark  you  could  hardly 
see  your  hand  before  your  face. 

As  a  part  of  the  element  of  surprise  there 
was  to  be  but  a  short  period  of  preparatory 
bombardment.  The  artillery  was  to  fire  what 
the  French  call  ''the  fire  of  destruction"  for 
five  minutes  on  the  front  line,  and  then  to 
move  to  the  next  objective.  This  bombard- 
ment was  to  commence  at  4.30,  and  at  4.35 
the  men  were  to  go  over  the  top. 

The  troops  all  reached  the  position  safely 
by  about  4  o'clock.  Our  position  lay  along 
the  edge  of  a  rugged  and  steep  ravine.  The 
rain  had  stopped  and  the  first  faint  pink  of  the 
early  summer  morning  lighted  the  sky.  Abso- 
lute silence  hung  over  everything,  broken  only 
by  the  twittering  of  birds.  Suddenly  out  of 
the  stillness,  without  the  warning  of  a  prelimi- 
nary shot,  our  artillery  opened  with  a  crash. 


172  Average  Americans 

All  along  the  horizon,  silhouetted  against  the 
pale  pink  of  the  eariy  dawn,  was  the  tiifted 
smoke  of  high  explosive  shells,  and  the  btirst 
of  shrapnel  showed  in  flashes  like  the  spitting 
of  a  broken  electric  wire  in  a  hailstorm.  After 
the  bombardment  had  been  going  on  for  two 
or  three  minutes,  D  company,  on  the  right, 
became  impatient  and  wanted  to  attack,  and 
I  heard  the  men  begin  to  call,  ''Let's  go, 
let's  go!" 

At  4.35  the  infantry  went  over.  The  sur- 
prise was  complete.  Germans  were  killed 
in  their  dugouts  half  dressed.  One  of  the 
imits  of  the  division  captured  a  colonel  and 
his  staff  still  in  his  dugout.  So  rapid  was  the 
advance  on  the  first  day  that  the  German 
advance  batteries  were  taken.  The  French 
cavalry  followed  up  our  advance,  looking  for 
a  break-through.  By  night  all  the  objectives 
were  taken  and  the  troops  bivouacked  in  the 
captured  position.  During  the  night  Htm  air- 
planes flew  low  over  us  dropping  flares  and 
throwing  small  bombs.  Next  morning  the 
attack   started   again.    We   ran   into   much 


AN     AIR     RAID 

Drawn  by  Captain  George  Harding,  A.  E.  P.,  August,  1918 


Solssons  173 

machine-gun  fire.  ''Only  those  who  have 
danced  to  its  music  can  know  what  the 
mitrailleuse  means.'* 

The  Germans  now  rushed  up  all  the  reserves 
they  could  to  hold  this  threatened  point.  On 
the  second  day  we  took  prisoners  from  four 
Hun  divisions  in  front  of  the  regiment.  One 
prisoner  told  us  he  had  marched  twenty-four 
kilometers  during  the  preceding  night.  For 
five  days  the  advance  continued,  imtil  the 
final  objective  was  taken  and  we  held  the 
Chdteau-Thierry-Soissons  railroad  and  the  Ger- 
mans ordered  a  general  retreat.  I  was  not 
fortunate  enough  to  see  the  last  half  of  this 
battle,  as  I  was  wounded.  I  heard  about  it, 
however,  from  men  who  had  been  all  through 
it. 

Our  casualties  were  very  heavy.  At  the 
end  of  the  battle,  companies  in  some  cases 
came  out  commanded  by  corporals,  and  bat- 
talions by  second  lieutenants.  In  the  battle 
the  regiment  lost  most  of  the  men  that  built 
it  up. 

Colonel  Hamilton  A.  Smith,  as  fine  an  officer 


174  Average  Americans 

and  as  true  a  gentleman  as  I  have  ever  known, 
was  killed  by  machine-gun  fire  while  he  was 
verifying  his  outpost  line.  Major  McCloud, 
a  veteran  of  the  Philippines  who  had  served 
with  the  British  for  three  years,  was  killed 
on  the  second  day.  I  have  somewhere  a  note 
written  by  him  to  me  shortly  before  his  death. 
He  was  on  the  left,  where  heavy  resistance 
was  being  encountered.  I  had  just  sent  him 
a  message  advising  him  that  I  was  attacking 
in  the  direction  of  Ploisy.  His  answer,  which 
was  brought  by  a  wounded  runner,  read :  ' '  My 
staff  are  all  either  killed  or  wounded.  Will 
attack  toward  the  northeast  against  machine- 
gun  nests.     Good  hunting!'' 

Lieutenant  Colonel  Elliott  was  killed  by 
shell  fire.  Captain  J.  H.  Holmes,  a  gallant 
young  South  Carolinian,  was  killed.  He  left 
in  the  United  States,  a  young  wife  and  a  baby 
he  had  never  seen.  Captains  Mood,  Hamel, 
and  Richards  were  killed.  Lieutenant  Kern, 
of  whom  I  spoke  before,  was  mortally  wounded 
while  gallantly  leading  his  company.  Lieu- 
tenant Clarke  died  in  the  hospital  from  the 


Soissons  175 

effect  of  his  wounds  a  few  days  later.  Clarke 
was  a  big,  strapping  fellow  who  feared  nothing. 
Once  he  remarked  to  me:  ''Yes,  it  is  a  messy- 
damn  war,  sir,  but  it's  the  only  one  we've  got 
and  I  guess  we  have  got  to  make  the  best  of 
it."  These  are  only  a  few  of  those  who  fell. 
Both  Major  Compton  and  Major  Travis  were 
wounded. 

The  Twenty-sixth  Infantry  was  brought 
out  of  the  fight,  when  it  was  relieved,  by  Lieu- 
tenant Colonel  (then  Captain)  Barnwell  Rhett 
Legge,  of  South  Carolina.  Colonel  Legge 
started  the  war  as  a  second  lieutenant.  When 
I  first  knew  him  he  was  adjutant  of  the  Third 
Battalion.  Later  he  took  a  company  and  com- 
manded it  during  the  early  fighting.  He  was 
then  made  adjutant  of  the  regiment,  and  two 
or  three  times  I  recall  his  asking  the  Colonel 
to  let  him  go  back  with  his  company.  Cap- 
tain Frey,  killed  earlier,  who  was  originally 
my  senior  company  commander,  thought  very 
highly  of  him  and  used  to  ''josh"  him  contin- 
ually. Once  Legge  took  out  a  raiding  party 
and  captured  a  German  prisoner  fifty-four 


176  Average  Americans 

years  old.  Frey  never  let  him  hear  the  last 
of  it,  asking  him  if  he  considered  it  a  sportsman- 
like proceeding  to  take  a  man  of  that  age, 
and  saying  that  a  man  who  would  do  such  a 
thing  would  shoot  quail  on  the  ground  and 
catch  a  trout  with  a  worm.  All  during  my 
service  in  Europe,  Legge  served  with  me. 
During  the  latter  part  he  was  my  second  in 
command  in  the  regiment.  I  have  seen  him 
under  all  circumstances.  He  was  always  cool 
and  decided.  No  mission  was  too  difficult 
for  him  to  undertake.  His  ability  as  a  troop 
leader  was  of  the  highest  order.  In  my  opin- 
ion no  man  of  his  age  has  a  better  war  record. 

An  amusing  incident  occurred  in  Lieutenant 
Baxter's  platoon  during  the  battle.  The  men 
were  advancing  to  the  attack  perhaps  a  couple 
of  hundred  yards  from  the  Germans.  They 
were  moving  forward  in  squad  columns  as 
they  were  going  through  a  valley  where  they 
were  defiladed  from  machine-gun  fire,  though 
the  enemy  was  firing  on  them  with  its  artillery. 
Suddenly  Baxter  heard  rifle  fire  behind  him. 
He  wheeled  aroimd  and  saw  that  a  rabbit  had 


Soissons  177 

jumped  up  in  front  of  the  left  of  the  platoon 
and  the  men  were  firing  at  it. 

The  worst  strain  of  the  battle  came  during 
the  last  two  days  when  casualties  had  been 
so  heavy  as  to  take  off  many  of  the  field  officers 
and  most  of  the  company  commanders,  when 
the  remnants  of  the  regiments  pressed  forward 
and  captured  Berzy-le-Sec  and  the  railroad. 
It  is  always  more  difficult  for  the  juniors  in 
a  battle  like  this,  for  they  generally  do  not 
know  what  is  at  stake.  General  Frank  Parker 
told  me  how,  during  the  fourth  day,  when 
battalions  of  eight  hundred  men  had  shrunk 
to  a  hundred  and  it  looked  as  if  the  division 
would  be  wiped  out,  and  even  he  was  wonder- 
ing whether  we  were  not  losing  the  efficiency 
of  the  division  without  getting  a  compensatory 
gain.  General  C.  P.  Summerall,  the  division 
commander,  came  to  his  headquarters  and 
said:  "General,  the  German  high  command 
has  ordered  the  first  general  retreat  since  the 
first  battle  of  the  Mame." 

General  Simimerall  took  command  of  the 

division  just  before  Soissons,  when  General 
12 


178  Average  Americans 

BuUard  was  given  the  corps.  He  had  previ- 
ously commanded  the  artillery  of  the  division. 
The  division  always  regarded  him  as  their 
own  particular  general.  He  was  known  by 
the  nickname  of  ''Sitting  Bull."  He  is,  in 
my  opinion,  one  of  the  few  really  great  troop 
leaders  developed  by  us  during  the  war.  At 
this  battle  General  Summerall  is  reported  to 
have  made  a  statement  which  was  often  quoted 
in  the  division.  Some  staff  officer  from  the 
corps  had  asked  him  if,  after  the  very  heavy 
casualties  we  had  received,  we  were  capable 
of  making  another  attack.  He  replied:  "Sir, 
when  the  First  Division  has  only  two  men  left 
they  will  be  echeloned  in  depth  and  attacking 
toward  Berlin.'* 

Beside  the  First  Division,  the  Foreign 
Legion  and  the  Second  Division  were  meeting 
the  same  type  of  work  and  suffering  the  same 
losses.  No  finer  fighting  units  existed  than 
these  two.  A  very  real  compliment  that  was 
paid  the  Second  Division  was  the  fact  that  the 
rank  and  file  of  our  division  was  always  glad 
when  circumstances  ordained  that  the  divisions 


Soissons  179 

should  fight  side  by  side.  I  have  often  heard 
the  junior  officers  discussing  it. 

The  division  was  reHeved  by  the  Seaforth 
and  Gordon  Highlanders.  When  I  was  going 
to  the  rear,  wounded,  I  passed  their  advancing 
columns.  They  were  a  fine  set  of  men — tall, 
broad-shouldered,  and  fit  looking.  They,  too, 
were  in  high  spirits.  The  morale  of  the  Allies 
had  changed  within  twenty-four  hours.  They 
felt,  and  rightly,  that  the  Hun  had  been 
turned.  Never  from  this  moment  to  the  end 
of  the  war  did  it  change. 

This  Highland  division  showed  its  apprecia- 
tion of  the  American  division  by  the  following 
order  that  was  sent  to  our  higher  command : 

Headquarters  ist  Division, 
American  Expeditionary  Forces, 

Prance,  August  4th,  19 18. 

General  Order 
No.  42. 
The  following  is  published  for  the  information  of 
all  concerned  as  evidence  of  the  appreciation  of  the 
15th  Scottish  Division  of  such  assistance  as  this 
Division  may  have  rendered  them  upon  their  tak- 


i8o  Average  Americans 

ing  over  the  sector  from  us  in  the  recent  operation 
south  of  Soissons : 


15th  Scottish  Division  No.  G-705  24-7-18 

To  General  Officers  Commanding, 
First  American  Division. 

I  would  like  on  behalf  of  all  ranks  of  the  15th 
Division  to  express  to  you  personally,  and  to  your 
staff,  and  to  all  our  comrades  in  your  splendid 
Division,  our  mo.st  sincere  thanks  for  all  that  has 
been  done  to  help  us  in  a  difficult  situation. 

During  many  instances  of  taking  over  which  we 
have  experienced  in  the  war  we  have  never  received 
such  assistance,  and  that  rendered  on  a  most 
generous  scale.  In  spite  of  its  magnificent  suc- 
cess in  the  recent  fighting,  your  Division  must  have 
been  feeling  the  strain  of  operations,  accentuated 
by  very  heavy  casualties,  yet  we  could  discern  no 
symptom  of  fatigue  when  it  came  to  a  question  of 
adding  to  it  by  making  our  task  easier. 

To  your  artillery  commander  (Col.  Holbrook) 
and  his  Staff,  and  to  the  units  under  his  command, 
our  special  thanks  are  due.  Without  hesitation 
when  he  saw  our  awkward  predicament  as  to  artil- 
lery support  the  guns  of  your  Division  denied 
themselves  relief  in  order  to  assist  us  in  an  attack. 
This  attack  was  only  partly  successful,  but  the 
artillery  support  was  entirely  so. 


Soissons  i8i 

Without  the  help  of  Colonel  Mabee  and  his 
establishment  of  ambulance  cars,  I  have  no  hesi- 
tation in  saying  that  at  least  four  hundred  of  our 
wounded  would  still  be  on  our  hands  in  this  area. 

The  15th  Scottish  Division  desires  me  to  say  that 
our  hope  is  that  we  may  have  opportunity  of 
rendering  some  slight  return  to  the  First  American 
Division  for  all  the  latter  has  done  for  us,  and  fur- 
ther that  we  may  yet  find  ourselves  shoulder  to 
shoulder  defeating  the  enemy  in  what  we  hope  is 
the  final  stage  of  this  war. 

Signed:     H.  L.  Reed, 

Major  General 
Comdg.  isth  Scottish  Div. 

By  Command  of  Major  General  Summerall : 

H.  K.  LOUGHRY, 

Major,  F.  A.  N.  A.y 

Div,  Adjt. 

The  Highlanders  cheered  as  the  wounded 
Americans  passed  by  them.  One  lieutenant 
called  out  to  me,  ''How  far  have  you  gone?" 
I  answered,  "About  six  kilometers/'  "Good,'* 
he  said.     "We'll  go  another  six." 

After  the  battle  the  division  was  withdrawn 
to  near  Paris.  Many  of  the  officers  came  to 
see  me,  where  I  was  laid  up  with  a  bullet 


1 82  Average  Americans 

through  the  leg.  Major  A.  W.  Kenner,  the 
regimental  surgeon,  who  had  again  distin- 
guished himself  by  his  gallantry,  and  Captain 
Legge  were  both  in,  looking  little  the  worse 
for  the  wear. 


CHAPTER  IX 

ST.    MIHIEL   AND   THE   ARGONNE 

"  *  Millions  of  ages  have  cxjme  and  gone, ' 
The  sergeant  said  as  we  held  his  hand; 
*  They  have  passed  like  the  mist  of  the  early  dawn 
Since  I  left  my  home  in  that  far-oflF  land.  *  " 

Ironquill. 

r^URING  the  next  couple  of  months,  while  I 
was  laid  up  with  my  wound,  the  regiment 
first  went  to  a  rest  sector  near  Pont-d-Mousson. 
There  replacements  reached  them,  wounded 
men  returned,  and  they  gradually  worked  up 
to  their  full  strength  again. 

They  enjoyed  themselves  fully.  It  was  one 
of  those  sectors  so  common  on  the  east  of  the 
Western  Front  where  by  tacit  agreement  little 
action  took  place.  The  nature  of  the  country 
and  its  distance  from  the  great  centers  of 
France  made  many  parts  of  the  front  impracti- 
cable for  an  offensive  either  by  the  Him  or 

183 


1 84  Average  Americans 

ourselves.  In  these  sectors  a  division  such 
as  ours,  worn  by  hard  fighting,  or  a  division 
of  green  or  old  men,  held  the  line,  a  handful 
of  men  on  each  side  occupying  long  stretches. 
A  few  shells  would  come  whistling  over  during 
the  day  and  that  was  all. 

Everybody  used  to  look  back  on  their 
pleasant  times  in  this  sector.  They  got  fresh 
fish  by  the  thoroughly  illegal  method  of  throw- 
ing hand  grenades  in  some  near-by  ponds, 
while  fresh  berries  were  plentiful  even  in  the 
front  line.  It  was  midsummer  and  the  weather 
was  pleasantly  warm.  Altogether,  if  you  had 
to  be  at  war,  it  was  about  as  comfortable  as 
possible. 

An  odd  incident  of  this  period  occurred  to 
a  recruit  who  was  sent  out  the  first  night  to  a 
listening  post.  In  the  listening  post  was  a 
box  on  which  the  guard  sat.  At  some  time 
during  the  previous  night  the  Germans  had 
crept  up  and  put  a  bomb  under  this  box. 
After  looking  around  a  little  the  recruit  felt 
tired  and  sat  down  on  the  box.  A  violent 
explosion    followed.     Right    away    a    patrol 


St.  Mihiel  and  the  Argonne     185 

worked  out  from  our  lines  to  see  what  had 
happened.  When  they  got  there  they  looked 
carefully  through  every  ditch  or  clump  of 
bushes  in  the  vicinity,  but  they  could  not  find 
a  trace  of  the  man.  He  was  reported  as  dead, 
blown  to  bits.  On  the  march  up  into  Ger- 
many that  missing  recruit  reported  back  to 
the  regiment  on  his  return  from  a  German 
prison  camp.  Instead  of  being  blown  to 
pieces  he  had  simply  been  blown  into  the 
German  lines.  When  he  came  to,  he  was 
being  carried  to  the  rear  on  a  stretcher,  and 
he  spent  the  rest  of  the  war  as  a  prisoner, 
little  the  worse  for  wear,  except  for  a  few  scars. 
Shortly  after  this  the  St.  Mihiel  operation 
took  place.  The  plan  was  to  nip  off  the  salient 
by  a  simultaneous  attack  on  both  sides.  Our 
division  was  the  left  flank  unit  of  the  forces 
attacking  on  the  right  of  the  salient,  being 
charged  with  the  mission  of  making  a  juncture 
with  the  Twenty-sixth  Division,  which  was 
the  right  unit  of  the  forces  attacking  on  the 
left  of  the  salient.  The  resistance  was  so 
slight  that  the  operation  partook  of  the  nature 


1 86  Average  Americans 

of  a  maneuver  rather  than  a  battle.  Our 
losses  were  practically  nil.  A  large  number  of 
prisoners  were  captured  and  a  considerable 
amount  of  materiel.  The  reason  for  this  was 
that  the  Germans  had  determined  to  abandon 
the  position  and  were  in  full  retreat  when  we 
attacked.  They  had  been  misinformed  by 
their  spies,  however,  and  started  their  move- 
ment about  twenty-four  hours  too  late. 

The  men  had  a  fine  time  in  this  attack. 
While  they  had  been  in  the  Toul  sector  a  high 
hill,  called  Mount  Sec,  behind  the  German 
lines,  had  given  them  a  lot  of  trouble.  From 
it  the  Germans  had  been  virtually  able  to  look 
into  our  trenches.  In  the  attack  they  not 
only  took  this  hill,  but  left  it  far  in  the  rear. 
Our  unit  captured  a  German  officers*  mess, 
including  the  cook  and  a  fine  pig.  They 
promptly  made  the  cook  kill  the  pig  and  pre- 
pare him  for  their  dinner,  which  they  thor- 
oughly enjoyed. 

At  another  time  a  German  company  kitchen 
came  up  in  the  night  to  one  of  our  outposts 
to  ask  him  directions.     When  they  found  out 


St.  Mihiel  and  the  Argonne     187 

their  mistake  it  was  too  late,  and  they  were 
promptly  conducted  to  one  of  our  very  hungry 
companies. 

The  value  of  the  St.  Mihiel  operation  to 
our  army  was  considerable.  It  gave  our 
staffs  an  opportunity  to  make  mistakes  which 
were  not  too  terribly  costly.  We  fell  down 
particularly  on  the  question  of  handling  our 
road  traffic.  The  artillery  and  the  trains  in 
many  instances  became  hopelessly  jammed  on 
the  largely  destroyed  road.  Each  unit  com- 
mander with  laudable  desire  to  get  forward 
would  do  anything  to  accomplish  that  pur- 
pose— double  bank  or  cut  across  country. 
The  result  was,  of  course,  a  hopeless  tangle. 
This  alone  would  have  prevented  us  carrying 
on  a  further  attack,  as  no  army  can  run  away 
from  its  echelons  of  supply. 

Immediately  on  the  completion  of  the  at- 
tacks the  First  Division,  in  company  with  a 
number  of  others,  was  withdrawn  from  the 
line  and  moved  west  by  marching  to  a  posi- 
tion of  readiness  for  the  Argonne  offensive, 
which  was  to  take  place  in  a  couple  of  weeks. 


1 88  Average  Americans 

The  march  was  made  mainly  by  night,  as 
every  endeavor  was  being  used  to  make  a  sur- 
prise attack.  The  troops  bivouacked  in  the 
woods,  keeping  under  cover  during  the  day. 

The  battle  was  a  fierce  one.  During  the 
first  day  the  Americans  made  a  clean  break 
through,  but  the  lack  of  training  showed  and 
they  were  unable  to  exploit  their  success  prop- 
erly. The  various  units  became  dislocated  and 
orders  could  not  be  transmitted.  The  men 
were  gallant,  but  gallantry  is  no  use  when 
you  do  not  get  orders  and  when  supplies  do 
not  come  up.  As  a  result  the  Germans  were 
able  to  gather  themselves,  and  what  might 
have  been  a  rout  became  a  fierce  rear-guard 
action  which  lasted  for  more  than  a  month. 

The  First  Division  was  held  in  army  reserve 
and  thrown  in  to  take  a  particularly  hard  bit 
of  territory.  They  were  in  eleven  days  in  all 
and  took  all  their  objectives.  As  a  result 
they  were  cited  individually  by  General  Persh- 
ing in  General  Orders  No.  201 .  This  order — I 
believe  the  only  one  of  its  kind  issued  during 
the  war — follows: 


St.  Mihiel  and  the  Argonne     189 

G.  H.  Q. 
American  Expeditionary  Forces, 

France,  Nov.  io,  1918. 
General  Orders 
No.  201. 

1 .  The  Commander  in  Chief  desires  to  make  of 
record  in  the  General  Orders  of  the  American 
Expeditionary  Forces  his  extreme  satisfaction  with 
the  conduct  of  the  officers  and  soldiers  of  the 
First  Division  in  its  advance  west  of  the  Meuse 
between  October  4th  and  nth,  1918.  During 
this  period  the  division  gained  a  distance  of  seven 
kilometers  over  a  country  which  presented  not 
only  remarkable  facilities  for  enemy  defense  but 
also  great  difficulties  of  terrain  for  the  operation 
of  our  troops. 

2.  The  division  met  with  resistance  from  ele- 
ments of  eight  hostile  divisions,  most  of  which 
were  first-class  troops  and  some  of  which  were  com- 
pletely rested.  The  enemy  chose  to  defend  its 
position  to  the  death,  and  the  fighting  was  always 
of  the  most  desperate  kind.  Throughout  the 
operations  the  officers  and  men  of  the  division 
displayed  the  highest  type  of  courage,  fortitude, 
and  self-sacrificing  devotion  to  duty.  In  addition 
to  many  enemy  killed,  the  division  captured  one 
thousand  four  hundred  and  seven  of  the  enemy, 
thirteen  77-mm.  field  guns,  ten  trench  mortars,  and 
numerous  machine  guns  and  stores. 


I90  Average  Americans 

3.  The  success  of  the  division  in  driving  a 
deep  advance  into  the  enemy's  territory  enabled 
an  assault  to  be  made  on  the  left  by  the  neighbor- 
ing division  against  the  northeastern  portion  of 
the  Forest  of  Argonne,  and  enabled  the  First 
Division  to  advance  to  the  right  and  outflank 
the  enemy's  position  in  front  of  the  division  on 
that  flank. 

4.  The  Commander  in  Chief  has  noted  in  this 
division  a  special  pride  of  service  and  a  high  state 
of  morale,  never  broken  by  hardship  nor  battle. 

5.  This  order  will  be  read  to  all  organizations 
at  the  first  assembly  formation  after  its  receipt. 
(14790-A-306.) 

By  Command  of  General  Pershing: 

James  W.  McAndrew, 
Chief  of  Staff. 

Official: 

Robert  C.  Davis, 
Adjutant  General. 

The  losses  again  were  very  heavy,  nearly  as 
heavy  as  at  Soissons.  It  was  in  this  battle 
Lieutenant  T.  D.  Amory  was  killed  while 
making  a  daring  patrol.  Amory  was  a  gallant 
young  fellow,  not  more  than  twenty-two  or 
twenty-three  years  of  age.     He  had  originally 


St.  Mihiel  and  the  Argonne     191 

been  intelligence  officer  for  my  battalion  and 
had  been  quite  badly  wounded  by  a  shell 
fragment  in  the  Montdidier  sector.  As  soon 
as  he  was  cured  he  reported  back  to  the  regi- 
ment and  took  up  his  old  work  as  scout  officer. 
When  the  division  took  over,  contact  had  been 
lost  with  the  enemy.  A  patrol  was  accordingly 
sent  out  at  once,  for  it  was  possible  that  an 
attack  would  be  ordered  in  the  morning. 
Lieutenant  Amory  was  given  forty  men  and 
went  out.  Signal-corps  men  were  put  with 
him  to  carry  a  telephone.  It  turned  out  that 
the  Germans  were  holding  strong  points  rather 
than  a  continuous  line  of  front.  On  account 
of  this  and  the  darkness  he  filtered  through 
without  finding  them  and  unobserved  by  them. 
The  first  word  his  battalion  commander  re- 
ceived was  a  telephone  message  from  the 
signal-sergeant,  saying:  *'We  have  advanced 
about  one  and  one  half  kilometers  and  there 
is  no  sign  of  the  enemy.  The  Germans  have 
opened  on  us  from  the  right  flank."  Then: 
*'They  are  firing  on  us  from  three  sides.  I 
believe  we  are  surrounded.'*  And,  last:  "  Lieu- 


192  Average  Americans 

tenant  Amory  has  just  been  shot  through 
the  head  and  killed/' 

Captain  Foster  and  Captain  Wortley  also 
were  killed  at  this  time,  besides  many  other 
gallant  oflBcers  and  men.  Foster  when  he 
died  was  but  twenty -two  years  old.  When  he 
came  over  with  the  division,  he  was  nothing 
but  a  curly-headed  boy.  In  the  year  and  a 
half  that  he  spent  in  France  he  turned  from 
a  boy  into  a  man.  He  was  afraid  of  nothing 
and  had  a  rarer  virtue  in  that  he  was  always 
in  good  spirits.  He  had  been  hit  once  before 
at  Soissons.  He  had  been  platoon  leader  and 
adjutant.  Later,  on  the  death  of  the  com- 
pany commander,  Captain  Frey,  he  had  taken 
command  of  a  company.  He,  like  Lieutenant 
Amory,  was  shot  through  the  head  by  a 
machine  gun. 

Wortley  was  an  older  man  and  had  always 
been  ambitious  to  join  the  regular  army.  He 
had  served  an  enlistment  in  the  regulars  and 
had  been  a  sergeant.  Later  at  the  Leaven- 
worth School  he  had  received  his  commission. 
Wortley  also  had  been  woimded  at  Soissons. 


St.  Mihiel  and  the  Argonne     193 

Major  Youell  described  to  me  a  personal 
incident  of  this  battle,  which  illustrates  very 
well  the  dtill  leathery  mind  that  everyone 
gets  after  a  certain  amount  of  bitter  fighting 
and  fatigue.  As  commander  of  the  Second 
Battalion  he  had  received  orders  for  an  attack. 
He  was  not  sure  of  his  objectives.  He  got 
out  his  very  best  prismatic  compass,  which  he 
valued  more  than  any  of  his  other  possessions, 
as  it  was  virtually  impossible  to  replace  it, 
sighted  carefully,  determined  the  direction  of 
the  attack,  ordered  the  advance,  put  the  com- 
pass on  the  ground,  and  walked  off,  leaving  it 
there.  When  he  next  thought  of  it  the  com- 
pass was  gone  for  good. 

Another  captain  we  had  was  thoroughly 

courageous  personally,  but  he  had  one  very 

bad  fault.     He  could  not  keep  his  men  under 

control.     Once  after  an  attack  his  battalion 

commander  was  checking  up  to  see  if  the 

objectives  were  taken  and  all  imits  in  place. 

He  found  the  objectives  were  taken  all  right, 

but  that,  in  the  instance  of  this  one  company, 

the   company   itself   was   missing!    On   the 
13 


194  Average  Americans 

objective  was  sitting  simply  the  company 
commander  and  his  headquarters  group.  The 
rest  of  the  company  had  missed  its  direction 
advancmg  through  a  wood  and  got  lost. 

I  remember  this  same  company  commander 
in  another  action.  We  had  been  advancing 
behind  tanks,  which  had  all  been  disabled  by 
direct  fire  from  the  Germans.  I  went  forward 
to  where  he  was  lying  with  a  handful  of  men 
by  one  of  these  tanks.  I  said  to  him,  ''Cap- 
tain, were  is  your  company?**  He  said,  *'I 
don't  know,  sir;  but  the  Germans  are  there.'* 
He  knew  where  the  enemy  were  and  was  per- 
fectly game  to  go  on  and  attack  them  with 
his  eight  or  nine  men. 

Colonel  Hjalmar  Erickson  was  commander 
of  the  Twenty-sixth  Infantry  during  this 
action.  He  was  a  fine  troop  leader  and  a 
powerful  man  physically.  During  a  battle 
the  higher  command  naturally  want  to  know 
what  is  going  on  at  the  front.  It  is  very 
difficult  for  the  officer  at  the  front  to  furnish 
these  details;  often  he  is  busy,  sometimes  he 
knows  nothing  to  tell.     Once,  during  the  first 


St.  Mihiel  and  the  Argonne     195 

Argonne  battle,  the  higher  command  called 
upon  Erickson.  Nothing  was  happening,  but 
Erickson  was  equal  to  the  occasion. 

''Yes,  yes,  everything  is  fine.  What  has 
happened?  Our  heavies  have  just  started 
firing  and  it  sounds  good,*'  was  Erickson's 
reassuring  message. 

Meanwhile  I  had  been  given  a  Class  B 
rating  and  detailed  as  an  instructor  at  the 
school  of  the  line  at  Langres.  After  I  had 
been  there  a  short  while  I  saw  an  officer  from 
the  First  Division  and  told  him  I  was  awfully 
anxious  to  get  back  and  felt  quite  up  to  field 
work  again.  A  few  days  after  that  General 
Parker  called  up  some  of  the  commanding 
officers  in  the  college  on  the  telephone.  I  had 
one  obstacle  to  overcome.  I  still  had  to  walk 
with  a  cane,  and,  although  this  did  not  really 
make  any  difference  to  me  from  a  physical 
standpoint,  it  was  a  question  if  I  could  get 
the  medical  department  to  pass  me  as  Class  A. 
We  decided  that  the  best  way  to  do  was  to 
take  the  bull  by  the  horns  and  go  anyhow.  I 
said  good-by  to  the  college  one  night  and  went 


196  Average  Americans 

with  Major  Gowenlock,  of  the  division  staff, 
directly  back  to  the  division.  I  was  techni- 
cally A.  W.  O.  L.  for  a  couple  of  weeks,  but  they 
don*t  court-martial  you  for  A.  W.  O.  L.  if  you 
go  in  the  right  direction,  and  my  orders  came 
through  all  right.  On  reporting  to  General 
Frank  Parker,  who  was  commanding  the  divi- 
sion, he  assigned  me  to  the  command  of  my 
own  regiment.  When  my  orders  finally  came  to 
the  school  directing  me  to  report  to  C.  G.,  of 
the  First  Division,  for  assignment  to  duty,  I 
was  commanding  the  regiment  in  battle. 

At  about  this  time  three  cavalry  troopers 
reported  to  the  Twenty-sixth  Infantry.  They 
said  they  came  from  towns  where  they  had 
been  on  military  police  duty.  They  stated 
that  they  had  heard  from  a  man  in  a  hospital 
that  the  First  Division  was  having  a  lot  of 
fighting  and  so  they  had  gone  A.  W.  O.  L.  to 
join  it.  They  were  attached  to  one  of  the  com- 
panies, and  a  letter  was  sent  through  regular 
channels  saying  that  they  were  excellent  men 
and  we  wanted  their  transfer  to  a  combatant 
branch  of  the  service.   We  phrased  it  this  way  in 


St.  Mihiel  and  the  Argonne    197 

order  to  tease  one  of  our  higher  command  who 
belonged  to  the  cavalry.  A  long  while  later, 
as  I  recall,  an  answer  came  back  directing  me 
to  send  the  men  back  to  their  outfit,  but  they 
were  all  either  killed  or  wounded  at  that  time. 

After  the  division  was  relieved  from  the 
Argonne  it  went  into  rest  billets  near  the  town 
of  Ligny,  there  to  rest  and  receive  replace- 
ments before  returning  into  the  same  battle. 
Advantage  was  taken  of  this  brief  period  of  rest 
to  give  leave  to  some  of  the  enlisted  personnel 
and  officers.  This  was  the  first  leave  most  of 
them  had  had  since  they  had  been  in  France. 
Captain  Shipley  Thomas  took  the  men  under 
his  command  to  their  area.  He  described  to 
me  on  his  return  how  on  the  way  down  all 
the  men  would  talk  about  was:  "Do  you  re- 
member how  we  got  that  machine-gun  nest? 
That  was  where  McPherson  got  his.**  "Do 
you  remember  how  Lieutenant  Baxter  and 
Sergeant  Dobbs  got  those  seventy-sevens  by 
outflanking  and  surprising  them?" 

By  the  time  they  had  been  at  the  Y.  M.  C.  A. 
Leave  Area  twenty-four  hours  they  had  for- 


198  Average  Americans 

gotten  all  this.  For  seven  days  they  had  a  fine 
time  and  their  point  of  view  changed  entirely. 
As  the  train  carried  them  north  through  France, 
when  they  stopped  at  a  station  they  would  lean 
out  of  the  windows  and  inveigle  some  unsus- 
pecting M.  P.  close  to  the  train.  They  would 
ask  him  with  much  earnestness  what  it  was  like 
at  the  front,  explaining  to  him  meanwhile  that 
they  were  members  of  the  Arkansas  Balloon 
Corps,  and  when  he  got  near  enough  throw  soda- 
water  bottles  at  his  head.  Later  an  indignant 
epistle  reached  me  demanding  an  explanation 
and  directing  ''an  investigation  to  fix  the 
responsibility. ' '  A  commanding  officer  should 
know  a  great  many  things  unofficially,  and 
in  this  case  my  knowledge  was  all  of  an  un- 
official nature,  so  I  was  able  with  a  clear 
conscience  to  indorse  it  back  with  the  sugges- 
tion that  they  investigate  some  other  imit. 

Captain  J.  B.  Card,  Captain  Richards,  and 
some  other  of  the  officers  were  given  leave. 
They  started  immediately  for  Nice.  While 
they  were  traveling  down  we  received  orders 
that  we  were  to  go  back  into  the  battle,  so 


St.  Mihiel  and  the  Argonne     199 

wires  were  awaiting  them  when  they  got  oflF 
the  train  to  report  back  to  their  units  imme- 
diately. They  made  a  good  connection  and 
spent  only  three  hours  at  Nice.  They  reported 
back  smiling  and  thought  it  was  a  good  joke 
on  themselves. 

General  C.  P.  Stimmerall  had  been  promoted 
to  the  command  of  a  corps  and  General  Frank 
Parker  given  command  of  the  division.  Gen- 
eral Parker  was  also  one  of  the  First  Division's 
own  officers.  Before  getting  the  division  he 
had  in  turn  commanded  the  Eighteenth 
Infantry  and  the  First  Brigade.  He  had  a 
fine  theory  for  soldiering.  Summarized  briefly, 
it  was  that  the  way  to  handle  troops  was  to 
explain  to  them,  in  so  far  as  possible,  all  that 
was  to  take  place  and  the  importance  of  the 
actions  of  each  individual  man.  He  had  all 
his  officers  out  with  the  men  as  much  as  pos- 
sible. He  had  them  all  emphasize  to  the  private 
the  importance  of  his  individual  intelligent 
action.  This  is  a  fine  creed  for  a  commanding 
officer,  as  it  helps  to  give  him  the  confidence 
of  his  men.     Obedience  is  absolutely  necessary 


200  Average  Americans 

in  a  soldier,  but  unintelligent  obedience  is 
not  nearly  as  valuable  as  intelligent  obedience 
given  with  confidence  in  the  man  who  issues 
the  order.  It  is  intelligent  comprehension  of 
the  aims  of  an  order  that  lends  most  to  its 
proper  execution. 


CHAPTER  X 


THE  LAST  BATTLE 


"The  giant  grows  blind  in  his  fury  and  spite, 
One  blow  on  the  forehead  will  finish  the  fight." 

Holmes. 

HARDLY  had  the  new  replacements,  some 
1800  in  all,  learned  to  what  company 
they  belonged,  when  our  definite  orders 
reached  us.  The  trucks  arrived  and  we  rattled 
off  toward  the  front.  We  detrucked  and 
bivouacked  for  a  couple  of  days  in  a  big 
wood  while  our  supply  trains  came  up.  The 
weather,  fortunately,  was  crisp  and  cool  and 
bivouacking  was  really  pleasant.  What  our 
mission  was  we  did  not  know,  but  as  we  were 
to  be  in  General  Summerairs  corps  we  were 
sure  there  would  be  plenty  of  fighting  to  go 
around. 

General  Summerall  himself  came  and  spoke 

to  each  of  the  infantry  regiments.     The  regi- 

201 


202  Average  Americans 

ment  was  formed  in  a  three-sided  square  and 
he  spoke  from  the  blank  side. 

Almost  immediately  our  orders  arrived  to 
move  up.  As  usual  we  moved  at  night.  The 
weather  repented  of  its  gentleness  and  cold 
heavy  rain  started.  The  roads  were  gone,  the 
nights  black,  the  columns  splashed  through 
mud  with  truck  trains,  with  supplies  for  the 
troops  ahead  of  us,  crisscrossing  and  jamming 
by  us.  We  passed  the  barren  zone  that  had 
been  No  Man's  Land  for  four  years  and  was 
now  again  France. 

Early  in  the  morning  in  a  heavy  mist  we 
reached  another  patch  of  woods  just  in  rear 
of  where  the  line  was.  Here  we  gained  con- 
tact with  the  Second  Division  that  was  ahead 
of  us.  They  attacked  the  same  day  and  again 
we  received  orders  to  follow  them.  On  this 
night  the  maps  played  us  a  trick,  for  a  road  well 
marked  turned  out  to  be  a  little  wood  trail. 
All  night  long  we  moved  down  it  single  file 
to  get  forward  a  bare  seven  kilometers.  A 
wood  trail  in  the  rain  is  bad  enough  for  the 
first  man  that  moves  over  it,  but  it  is  almost 


The  Last  Battle  203 

impassable  for  the  three  thousandth  man 
when  his  turn  comes.  We  got  through,  how- 
ever, and  by  morning  the  regiment  was  in  place. 
The  road  was  clogged  with  a  stream  of  trans- 
ports of  all  kinds — trucks,  wagon  trains,  tanks, 
and  tractors,  double  banked  and  stuck.  Occa- 
sionally, passing  by  them  on  foot,  you  would 
hear  some  general* s  aide  spluttering  in  his 
limousine  at  the  delay  and  wet. 

Through  this  our  supply  train  was  brought 
forward  by  Captains  Scott  and  Card  and 
Lieutenant  Cook  with  the  uncanny  ability  to 
accomplish  the  seemingly  impossible  which  had 
stood  us  in  good  stead  many  times.  Indeed, 
the  train  beat  the  infantry  and  when  we  ar- 
rived, we  found  them  there  banked  beside 
the  road,  with  the  kitchens  smoking,  and  the 
food  spreading  a  comforting  aroma  through  the 
rain-rotted  woods.  Orders  were  received  to 
march  to  Landreville.  We  gave  the  men  hot 
chow  and  put  the  column  in  motion  as  soon 
as  they  had  finished.  The  sun  came  out  and 
dried  us  off  and  we  felt  more  cheerful. 

Still  following  in  the  wake  of  the  victorious 


204  Average  Americans 

Second  Division,  we  passed  through  the  deso- 
late, war-battered  little  town  of  Landreville. 
There,  to  my  intense  astonishment,  I  suddenly 
came  on  niy  brother,  Kermit,  and  my  brother- 
in-law,  Richard  Derby,  who  was  chief  surgeon 
of  the  Second  Division.  My  brother  Kermit 
had  transferred  to  the  American  army  from 
the  British,  had  finished  his  course  at  an 
artillery  school,  and  was  now  reporting  to  the 
First  Division  for  duty.  Seeing  them  so 
unexpectedly  was  one  of  the  most  delightful 
surprises. 

We  went  into  position  at  Landreville  and 
sent  out  patrols,  which  immediately  gained 
contact  with  the  marines  in  our  front,  who 
were  preparing  to  attack  next  day. 

That  night  my  brother  and  I  sat  in  a  ruined 
shed,  regimental  headquarters,  surrounded  by 
dead  Germans  and  Americans,  and  talked  over 
all  kinds  of  family  affairs. 

Again  the  following  night,  as  the  Second 
Division's  attack  had  been  successful,  we 
moved  forward.  Again  it  rained.  Next  morn- 
ing we  were  bivouacked  in  the  Bois  de  la  Folie, 


The  Last  Battle  205 

but  before  evening  were  on  the  march  again 
to  another  position.  By  the  time  we  had 
reached  this  position,  orders  came  to  move 
forward  again  and  we  went  into  position  in 
woods  just  south  of  Beaumont.  Here  the 
Colonel  of  the  Ninth  Infantry  and  I  had  head- 
quarters together  in  an  old  farmhouse  that 
had  been  used  by  the  Germans  as  a  prisoners' 
cage.  It  was  surrounded  by  wire  and  filthy 
beyond  description. 

Here  we  got  orders  that  we  were  to  take 
over  from  the  division  on  the  left  of  the 
Second  Division  and  attack  in  the  morning. 
By  this  time  the  troops  had  marched  practi- 
cally five  nights  in  succession  and  also  two  of 
the  days.  Speaking  of  this,  there  is  a  military 
phrase  which  has  always  irritated  me.  It 
appears  in  all  accounts  of  big  battles.  It  is, 
''At  this  point  fresh  troops  were  thrown  into 
action.'*  There  is  no  such  thing  as  "throwing 
fresh  troops"  into  action.  By  the  time  the 
troops  get  into  action  they  have  marched  night 
after  night  and  are  thoroughly  tired. 

The    correct    phrase    should    be,    ''troops 


eo6  Average  Americans 

that  have  suffered  no  casualties/*  For  exam- 
ple, that  night  my  three  majors,  Legge, 
Frazier,  and  Youell,  all  of  them  young  men 
not  more  than  twenty-eight  years  old,  came 
in  to  get  their  orders  for  the  attack.  We  all 
sat  down  on  wooden  benches  in  the  cellar. 
Something  happened  which  made  it  necessary 
for  me  to  change  part  of  my  orders.  Making 
the  changes  did  not  take  more  than  five  min- 
utes in  all.  By  the  time  I  was  through,  all  three 
of  them  had  fallen  asleep  where  they  sat. 

After  receiving  the  orders,  I  got  in  touch 
with  the  Second  Division,  and  I  want  to  say 
that  when  the  next  war  comes  I  hope  my  side 
partners  will  be  of  the  same  type.  Colonel 
Robert  Van  Horn,  an  old  friend  of  mine, 
was  commanding  the  Twenty-third  Infantry, 
which  was  to  be  on  the  right  flank.  I  was  to 
attack  with  two  battalions  in  line  and  one  in 
support,  my  right  flank  on  Beaumont,  my  left 
following  a  road  that  led  north  to  Mouzon. 
Together  Van  Horn  and  I  worked  out  our 
plans  and  arranged  for  the  connections  we 
wished  to  make.     He  had  been  fighting  then 


The  Last  Battle  207 

for  a  number  of  days,  but  was  just  as  keen  to 
continue  as  a  schoolboy  in  a  game  of  football. 

That  night  again  sunny  France  justified  her 
reputation  and  for  the  fifth  day  in  succession 
it  rained.  The  troops  moved  forward  and 
with  the  easy  precision  of  veterans  found  their 
positions,  got  their  direction,  and  checked  in 
as  in  place  at  the  moment  of  attack. 

At  5.35  in  a  heavy  mist  they  went  over  the 
top.  The  Hun  had,  by  this  time,  lost  all  his 
fight  and  we  advanced  for  seven  or  eight 
kilometers  to  our  objectives,  Mouzon  and  Ville 
Montry.  By  6.00  in  the  evening  the  sector 
was  cleared,  the  troops  established  on  the 
objectives,  and  the  advanced  elements  fighting 
in  Mouzon. 

Two  of  the  German  prisoners  who  were 
brought  back  early  this  day,  an  officer  and 
his  orderly,  were  nothing  more  than  boys. 
They  said  they  had  been  retreating  for  days 
and  that  they  were  so  tired  that  they  had  not 
woke  up  until  some  of  the  Americans  had 
prodded  them  with  a  bayonet. 

It  was  in  this  attack  that,  among  others, 


2o8  Average  Americans 

* 
one  of  the  medical  officers,  Lieutenant  Skil- 
lirs,  was  killed.  Like  most  of  our  medical 
officers,  he  followed  his  work  with  absolute 
disregard  for  his  personal  safety.  He  was  hit 
by  a  shell  toward  the  end  of  the  attack  while 
crossing  the  shelled  area  to  help  some  wounded. 

At  8  o*clock  we  received  word  that  we 
were  to  withdraw  from  the  sector  we  had 
taken  and  march  into  a  position  from  which 
we  should  attack  Sedan  next  morning.  The 
Seventy-seventh  Division  was  to  extend  its 
right  and  occupy  the  sector  we  were  leaving. 
Word  was  sent  to  the  majors  to  collect  their 
commands  and  assemble  them  at  a  given 
point.  All  honor  again  to  our  supply  com- 
pany. They  were  there  close  in  the  rear  of  us 
and  worked  forward  food  to  the  men.  At  this 
time,  with  the  men  as  tired  as  they  were,  it 
was  of  vital  importance. 

I  received  my  detailed  orders  from  General 
F.  C.  Marshall  at  a  little  half -burned  farm. 

By  8  o'clock  the  officers  and  men,  who  had 
marched  and  fought  without  stopping  for 
twenty-four    hours,    were    again    assembled 


The  Last  Battle  209 

and  moving  west  on  the  Beatimont-Stomay 

road.     All  night  long  the  men  plowed  like 

mud-caked  specters  through  the  dark,  some 

staggering  as  they  walked.     Once  we  had  to 

move  single  file  through  our  artillery,  which 

was  to  follow  in  our  rear.     Often  we  had 

to  take  detours,  as  the  Germans  had  mined 

the  road.     At  one  place  a  bridge  over  a  stream 

was  gone  and  the  whole  division  had  to  cross 

over  single  file.     Everyone  had  reached  the 

last  stages  of  exhaustion.     Captain  Dye,  a 

corking  good  officer,  fainted  on  the  march,  lay 

unconscious  in  the  mud  for  an  hour,  came  to, 

and  joined  his  company  before  the  morning 

attack.     Major  Frazier,  while  riding  at  the 

head  of  his  battalion,  fell  asleep  on  his  horse 

and  rolled  off. 

As  I  rode  up  and  down  the  colvimn  I  watched 

the  men.     Most  of  them  were  so  tired  that 

they  said  but  little.     Occasionally,  however,  I 

would  run  on  to  some  of  the  old  men,  laughing 

and  joking  as  usual.     I  remember  hearing  a 

sergeant,  who  was  closing  the  rear  of  one 

platoon,  say,  ''Ooh,  la,  la!'' 
14 


210  Average  Americans 

''What  is  it,  sergeant,  aren't  you  getting 
enough  exercise?"  I  said  to  him. 

''Exercise,  is  it,  sir?  It's  not  the  exercise 
I'm  worried  with,  but  I  do  be  afraid  that  them 
Germans  are  better  runners  than  we  are! 
Faith,  to  get  them  is  Hke  trying  to  catch  a  flea 
under  your  thumb." 

Another  time  I  passed  an  old  sergeant  called 
Johnson,  at  one  of  the  five-minute  rests. 

"Sir,"  asked  Johnson,  "when  do  we  hit 
'em?" 

"I'm  not  sure,  sergeant,"  I  said,  "but  I 
think  about  a  kilometer  and  a  half  from 
here." 

"That's  good,"  Johnson  replied.  "If  we 
can  once  get  them  and  do  'em  up  proper  they 
will  let  us  have  a  rest." 

Johnson  voiced  there  the  sentiments  of 
the  rank  and  file.  They  had  been  set  a  task 
and  it  never  entered  into  their  calculations 
that  they  could  not  do  the  task.  They 
wanted  to  do  it,  do  it  well,  and  then  have  their 
rest. 

In  the  morning  we  passed  through  a  French 


The  Last  Battle  211 

unit  at  Omicourt  and  started  our  attack.  By- 
afternoon  we  were  on  the  heights  overlook- 
ing Sedan,  where  word  reached  us  to  halt  our 
attack.  Shortly  after  we  were  told  to  with- 
draw, turning  over  to  the  French.  We  found 
later  that  it  was  considered  wise  that  the 
French  should  take  Sedan  on  account  of  the 
large  sentimental  value  attached  to  it  because 
of  the  German  victory  there  in  the  war  of 
1870. 

I  waited  in  the  sector  until  the  troops  had 
checked  back,  and  then  followed  them  to 
Chemery,  where  we  were  to  spend  the  night. 
When  I  arrived  I  found  the  three  battalion 
commanders  sleeping  in  the  stalls  of  a  stable. 
As  I  came  in  one  sat  up  and  said:  " Sir,  I  never 
knew  until  this  minute  what  a  lucky  animal  a 
horse  is.*' 

A  characteristic  incident  of  the  new  spirit 
occurred  in  this  attack.  Lieutenant  Leek  of 
E  Company  was  assigned  the  task  of 
occupying  the  town  of  Villemontry  with  a 
platoon.  After  severe  hand-to-hand  fighting 
on  the  streets  he  succeeded.     The  rapidity  of 


212  Average  Americans 

the  attack  prevented  the  Germans  from  carry- 
ing off  some  French  girls  with  them.  The  town 
was  under  heavy  fire  and  the  runner  who  was 
sent  with  the  message  directing  the  withdrawal 
and  the  march  on  Sedan  was  killed  before  he 
reached  them.  After  the  relieving  unit  ar- 
rived a  message  was  sent  to  Leek  that  his 
regiment  had  withdrawn.  He  replied  that 
the  First  Division  never  gave  up  conquered 
ground  and  he  would  hold  the  town  until  he 
received  word  from  his  proper  commander. 

The  next  day  we  moved  to  the  south  and 
east.  The  plan  of  the  higher  command,  I 
have  been  informed,  was  to  throw  the  First, 
Second,  Thirty-second,  and  Forty-second  Di- 
visions across  the  Meuse  in  an  attack  on  Metz, 
to  assign  no  objectives  but  to  let  the  rivalry 
in  the  divisions  determine  the  depth  of  the 
advance. 

All  through  the  last  ten  days  vague  rumors 
had  been  reaching  us  concerning  a  proposed 
armistice.  None  of  us  really  believed  there 
was  anything  in  them.  This  was  largely  on 
account  of  the  fact  that  during  the  year  and 


The  Last  Battle  213 

a  half  we  had  grown  so  accustomed  to  war 
that  we  could  not  imagine  peace.  Besides, 
we  felt  that  terms  that  would  be  in  any  way 
acceptable  to  us  would  not  be  even  given  a 
hearing  by  the  Germans.  We  felt  also  that 
we  had  them  on  the  run  and  we  wanted  to 
go  in  and  finish  them.  As  a  matter  of  fact, 
we  didn't  give  much  thought  to  it  anyhow. 
We  had  almost  as  much  as  we  could  do  finish- 
ing the  job  we  had  in  hand. 

On  the  march  one  day  I  heard  one  man 
discussing  with  the  other  members  of  his 
squad.  He  finished  his  remarks  by  saying, 
''I  hope  those  damned  politicians  don't  spoil 
this  perfectly  good  victory  we  are  winning." 

As  we  were  moving  back  a  day  later  an 
engineer  officer  rode  up  to  me  from  the  rear 
and  told  me  he  had  just  come  from  Second 
Division  headquarters,  where  they  had  an- 
nounced that  the  armistice  had  been  signed 
and  all  hostilities  were  to  cease  at  1 1  o'clock 
that  morning.  I  sent  back  word  to  the  men. 
It  was  announced  up  and  down  the  colimm 
and  a  few  scattering  cheers  were  all  that 


214  Average  Americans 

greeted  it.  I  don't  think  it  really  got  through 
their  heads  what  had  happened.  I  know  it 
had  not  got  through  mine. 

That  night  we  stopped  in  the  Bois  de  la 
Folie,  and  for  the  first  time  the  men  began 
to  realize  what  had  happened.  Fires  were 
lit  all  over.  Around  them  men  were  gathered, 
singing  songs  and  telling  stories.  It  was 
very  picturesque:  the  battered  woods,  the 
flaming  fires,  and  the  brown,  mud-caked  sol- 
diers. The  contrast  was  doubly  great,  as 
until  that  time  no  fires  were  lighted  by  the 
troops  when  anywhere  near  the  front  lines. 
German  airplanes  always  came  over  and  as 
the  men  expressed  it,  ''laid  eggs  wherever  they 
saw  a  light.'* 

The  first  thing  that  really  brought  it  home 
to  me  personally  was  when  a  little  military 
chauff"eur  came  up  through  the  dark  and  said, 
''Colonel,  Mrs.  Roosevelt  is  waiting  in  the  car 
at  the  comer." 

I  knew  that  no  women  had  been  anywhere 
near  the  front  the  day  before.  I  realized 
that  this  really  meant  that  the  war  was  over. 


The  Last  Battle  215 

The  car  came  up  and  skidded  around  in  the 
deep  mud.  Mrs.  Roosevelt  was  there  in  a 
pair  of  rubber  boots.  She  had  somehow- 
managed  to  come  because  she  wished  to  say 
good-by  to  me  and  return  to  our  children  in 
the  United  States  now  that  the  fighting  was 
over.  I  went  back  with  her  some  ten  kilo- 
meters to  a  tent  where  some  Y.  M.  C.  A.  men 
were  giving  out  chocolates,  crackers,  etc. 

All  the  way  back  through  the  night  the  sky 
was  lit  by  the  fires  of  the  men.  On  every  side 
rockets  were  going  up,  like  a  Fourth  of  July 
celebration.  Gas  signals  and  barrage  signals 
flashed  over  the  tree  tops.  The  whole  thing 
seemed  hardly  possible. 

Although  we  had  been  there  in  France  only 
a  year  and  a  half,  it  seemed  as  if  the  war  had 
lasted  interminably.  It  seemed  as  if  it  always 
had  been  and  always  would  be  with  us.  All 
our  plans  had  been  based  on  an  indefinite 
continuation.  I  had  been  rather  an  optimist, 
and  yet  I  did  not  consider  the  possibility  of 
a  cessation  of  hostilities  before  the  following 
autumn.     Much  of  the  quaint  philosophy  of 


2i6  Average  Americans 

the  French  had  sunk  into  our  hearts  and  insen- 
sibly became  a  part  of  us — the  philosophy 
which  had  its  creed  in  the  expression  Cest  la 
gtierre.  To  them  and  to  us  Cest  la  guerre 
had  much  the  significance  of  "All  in  the  day's 
work.'*  Like  them,  we  treated  apres  la  guerre 
as  something  in  the  nature  of  *' castles  in 
Spain/' 

So  the  war  finished,  so  our  part  in  the  fight- 
ing came  to  an  end;  a  page  of  the  world's  his- 
tory was  turned  and  we  moved  south  to  Ver- 
dun to  prepare  for  our  march  into  conquered 
Germany. 


CHAPTER  XI 

UP  THE  MOSELLE  AND  INTO  CONQUERED 
GERMANY 

"Judex  ergo  cum  sedebit 
Quidquid  latet,  apparebit 
Nil,  inultum  remanebit." 

Celano. 

npHE  Third  Army,  which  was  to  march  into 
Germany  as  the  army  of  occupation,  was 
all  in  place  on  the  1 5th  of  November.  My  regi- 
ment was  bivouacked  in  what  had  once  been 
a  wood,  northeast  of  shell-shattered  Verdun. 
The  bleakest  of  bleak  north  winds  whistled  over 
the  hilltops,  whirling  the  gray  dust  in  clouds. 
The  men  huddled  around  fires  or  burrowed 
into  cracks  in  the  hillside.  Here  we  prepared 
as  well  as  we  could  for  our  move  forward. 

Before  dawn  on  the  17th  of  November,  the 
infantry  advanced  in  two  parallel  coltimns. 

By  sunrise  we  were  over  the  German  lines  and 

217 


2i8  Average  Americans 

the  brown  coltunns  were  winding  down  the 
white,  dusty  roads  through  villages  long  beat- 
en out  of  the  semblance  of  human  habitation 
by  the  shells.  Gazing  back  down  the  column, 
the  thought  that  always  struck  uppermost 
was  the  realization  of  strength.  The  infantry 
column  moves  slowly,  but  the  latent  power  in 
the  close  mass  of  marching  men  is  very  impres- 
sive. The  only  thing  I  know  which  compares 
with  it  in  suggestion  of  power  is  a  line  of  great 
gray  dreadnaughts  lunging  across  the  water. 

At  one  village  a  young  French  soldier,  who 
had  been  riding  on  a  bicycle  by  our  coltimn, 
stopped  sadly  before  three  crumbling  walls. 
It  was  all  that  was  left  of  his  home.  His 
father,  the  mayor  of  the  village,  had  lived 
there.  His  mother  had  died  in  Germany  and 
he  did  not  know  what  had  become  of  his  father. 

By  night  we  were  out  of  the  uninhabited 
parts  and  were  reaching  the  freed  French  vil- 
lages. Here  we  found  starving  men,  women, 
and  children  whom  we  helped  out  from  our 
none-too-plentiful  rations.  These  people  were 
pathetic.     They    seemed    to    have    lost    the 


Conquered  Germany  219 

power  to  rejoice.  They  looked  at  us  from 
their  doors  with  lackluster  eyes  and  apparent 
indifference.  One  woman  told  me  that  the 
Germans  as  they  left  her  house  had  told  her 
they  would  be  back  soon.  I  asked  her  if  she 
believed  it,  and  she  simply  shrugged  her 
shoulders. 

Next  morning  we  were  on  the  march  again. 
AH  day  long,  past  our  advancing  columns, 
streamed  the  prisoners  whom  the  Germans  had 
been  working  in  the  coal  mines.  They  were 
French,  Italian,  Russian,  and  Rumanian,  des- 
perately emaciated  for  the  most  part  and  still 
wearing  their  old  uniforms.  Sometimes  they 
dragged  behind  them  little  carts  containing 
the  possessions  of  two  or  three  of  them. 
Often  I  stopped  them  and  questioned  them, 
but  whether  they  were  French  or  not  they 
seemed  to  have  one  idea,  and  one  only — to 
put  as  many  miles  between  them  and  Germany 
as  possible. 

We  had  sent  back  to  where  our  baggage  was 
stored  while  we  were  at  Verdun  and  brought 
up  our  colors  and  our  band.     Now  we  put 


220  Average  Americans 

them  at  the  head  of  the  column  and  went 
forward  with  band  playing  and  colors  flying. 

The  farther  we  got  from  where  the  front 
line  had  been,  the  better  was  the  condition 
of  the  inhabitants.  Now  we  began  to  see  the 
first  signs  of  rejoicing.  News  would  reach 
the  authorities  in  villages  that  we  were  com- 
ing some  time  before  we  arrived.  They  would 
throw  arches  of  flowers  over  the  streets 
through  which  we  marched.  Groups  of  little 
girls  would  rim  by  the  side  of  the  column, 
giving  bouquets  to  the  men.  Cheering 
crowds  would  gather  on  the  sides  of  the 
road. 

The  doughboy  had  a  beautiful  time.  The 
doughboy  loves  marching  to  music,  with  flags 
flying  and  the  populace  cheering.  He  is  very 
himian  and  is  fond  of  showing  off.  For  some 
reason  or  other  there  is  a  current  belief  in  this 
country  that  the  average  American  does  not 
like  parades,  decorations,  etc.  This  is  just 
bosh.  The  average  American  is  just  as'  keen 
for  such  things  as  anyone  else.  He  likes  to 
put  on  a  pretty  ribbon  and  come  home  and 


Conquered  Germany  221 

be  admired  by  the  young  ladies.  I  know  I 
like  to  put  on  my  decorations  for  my  wife. 

In  every  little  town  where  we  spent  the 
night  a  ceremony  of  some  sort  took  place. 
Generally  the  townspeople  made  us  an  Ameri- 
can flag  and  presented  it  to  us.  I  have  some 
of  these  flags  stowed  away  at  this  moment. 
They  were  made  with  the  help  of  old  diction- 
aries. Sometimes  these  dictionaries  were  very 
old  and  the  American  flag  of  one  himdred 
years  ago  would  be  the  one  copied.  At  one 
village  we  were  presented  with  a  flag  with 
fifty  stars.  The  donor  explained  that  he  had 
been  in  the  United  States  and  knew  we  had 
forty-eight  and  that  the  two  extra  were  for 
Alsace  and   Lorraine. 

Once,  while  we  were  at  mess  in  the  evening, 
with  great  ceremony  it  was  announced  that 
a  committee  of  young  ladies  desired  to  wait 
on  me.  I  bowed  to  the  girdle  and  said, 
''Will  they  come  in? ''  They  trooped  in,  peas- 
ant girls  from  fourteen  to  twenty  years  old, 
dressed  in  their  Sunday-go-to-meeting  clothes 
and  headed  by  the  mayor's  daughter.     They 


222  Average  Americans 

had  a  flag  with  them.  First,  one  of  them 
made  an  elaborate  speech,  in  which  we  were 
hailed  as  the  sons  of  Lafayette  and  George 
Washington,  a  shght  historical  inaccuracy. 
Then  I  replied,  calling  upon  the  names  of 
Joan  of  Arc,  Henry  of  Navarre,  and  others, 
and  then  the  spokeslady,  to  the  intense  delight 
of  my  staff,  stepped  forward  and  kissed  me 
on  both  cheeks.  At  another  time  a  large,  cor- 
pulent, much-bewhiskered  mayor  endeavored 
to  enact  the  same  ceremony,  but  forewarned 
is  forearmed,  and  I  evaded  him. 

In  a  short  time  we  came  to  the  Duchy  of 
Luxembourg  and  marched  over  the  border. 
Everywhere  here  also  we  were  met  with 
open  arms.  The  streets  were  jammed  as  we 
marched  through  the  villages.  All  the  world 
and  his  wife  were  there  and  greeted  us  as 
^'Comrades  glorious''  and  "Victors.*' 

We  sent  forward,  as  was  customary,  a  detail 
of  officers  to  make  sure  that  billeting  accom- 
modations were  forthcoming  and  that  every- 
thing would  be  as  comfortable  as  possible  for 
the  men.     When  I  arrived,  slightly  in  advance 


Conquered  Germany  223 

of  the  troops,  the  first  thing  I  saw  was  a  pro- 
cession of  townfolk  approaching.  At  its  head 
was  a  band  which  might,  for  all  the  world,  have 
come  out  of  the  comic  opera.  Following  the 
band  were  pompous  gentlemen  in  frock  coats 
and  top  hats,  carrying  bouquets  of  gorgeous 
flowers  done  up  with  ribbons,  and  making  up 
the  body  of  the  procession  were  people  of  every 
age,  both  sexes,  and  every  grade  in  society.  I 
realized  they  were  heading  for  me,  and  with 
great  dignity  descended  from  the  dinky  little 
side  car  in  which  I  had  been  traveling.  Major 
Legge  and  Lieutenant  Ridgely  here  joined  me 
and  explained  that  a  ceremony  of  welcome 
was  to  take  place,  and  I  was  to  represent  the 
United  States!  We  three  lined  up  solemnly 
while  the  Luxembourgers  formed  a  semicircle 
around  us.  The  ceremony  was,  first,  the  pres- 
entation speech;  second,  the  keys  of  the  city 
and  armfuls  of  bouquets,  and,  third,  a  cheer  for 
America ;  and  then  the  band  played.  We  none 
of  us  knew  the  Luxembourg  national  anthem, 
but  felt  that  this  must  be  it,  so  we  stood  at 
attention  with  great  solemnity  and  saluted 


224  Average  Americans 

while  it  was  sounding.  When  it  was  finished 
the  mayor  started  it  off  again  with  a  cheer 
for  Prance  and  the  same  supposedly  national 
anthem.  Again  we  stood  at  attention.  We 
went  through  this  same  ceremony  for  six  of 
the  Allies,  when  fortunately  the  troops  came 
up  and  terminated  it.  Later  I  found  that  the 
tune  they  played  and  to  which  we  had  been 
rendering  the  formal  compliment  was  the  air 
of  a  popular  song.  The  warm  welcome  would 
have  impressed  me  more  had  I  not  been  certain 
it  had  been  accorded  equally  to  the  Germans 
when  they  marched  through. 

Meanwhile  the  Eighteenth  Infantry  of  our 
division  had  passed  on  our  left  flank  through 
the  city  of  Luxembourg.  That  day  I  ran  down 
with  a  couple  of  officers  to  watch  them  parade. 
It  was  the  first  time  I  had  ever  been  in  Luxem- 
bourg. The  city  is  very  picturesque.  It  is 
built  on  the  side  of  a  rocky  gorge,  and  on  one 
jutting  pinnacle  of  rock  are  the  remains  of 
the  feudal  castle  where  a  medieval  emperor 
of  Germany  was  born.  The  f6te  amused  me 
very  much.     I  felt  as  if  I  were  living  in  George 


Conquered  Germany  225 

Barr  McCutcheon's  Graustark.  The  Luxem- 
bourg army  was  drawn  up  to  receive  our  troops, 
all  the  men  being  present,  150  sum  total. 
What  they  lacked  in  numbers  they  made  up 
in  gorgeousness.  Never  have  I  seen  such 
beautiful  uniforms,  so  many  colors,  so  much 
gold  lace,  and  such  absurdly  antiquated  rifles. 
The  populace  had  a  beautiful  time.  They  are 
mercantile  by  temperament.  They  realized 
that  a  reign  of  plenty  was  coming;  that  the 
American  goose  that  lays  the  golden  eggs 
would  be  in  their  midst  and  that  money  would 
flow  as  the  changeless  current  of  their  own 
Moselle  River. 

A  couple  of  days'  march  farther  and  we 
reached  the  banks  of  the  Moselle.  Here  we 
spent  four  or  five  days  while  the  troops  cleaned 
up  and  rested  in  three  small  towns.  The  regi- 
mental band  played  for  different  units  every 
day.  Everything  moved  smoothly.  The  in- 
habitants were  gentle  and  kindly.  Indeed, 
they  were  so  effective  in  their  kindness  that 
one  of  the  second  battalion  headquarters  cooks, 

called ' '  Chops, ' '  came  to  grief.     First,  he  drank 
1$ 


226  Average  Americans 

all  of  their  wine  he  could  get,  then,  in  an  in- 
spired spirit  of  generosity,  cooked  and  turned 
over  to  his  new  friends  the  turkey  which,  with 
much  labor,  had  been  secured  for  the  officers' 
Thanksgiving  dinner.  His  generosity  was 
sadly  misunderstood  by  his  commanding  offi- 
cer, for  he  was  returned  to  duty  with  the  mule 
train  from  which  he  had  come. 

On  the  fifth  of  December  we  resumed  the 
march  and  crossed  the  Moselle  into  conquered 
Germany.  From  this  time  on  a  new  element 
was  added  to  the  chances  of  campaigning. 
Our  maps  were  perfectly  impossible.  You 
never  could  tell  where  bridges  were  and  where 
there  were  simply  ferries.  Once  we  ran  our 
column  directly  into  a  pocket.  The  map 
showed  what  looked  like  a  bridge.  We  were 
not  allowed  to  scout  ahead,  and  the  inter- 
preter's questions  seemed  to  confirm  its  exist- 
ence. When  we  got  there  we  found  a  ferry 
that  accommodated  only  sixteen  men  at  a 
time  and  we  had  to  double  on  our  tracks. 
On  these  maps,  also,  the  roads  all  looked  good. 
The  first  day's  march  in  Germany  we  nearly 


Conquered  Germany  227 

lost  the  supply  train  on  account  of  this,  as  a 
seemingly  good  highway  ended  in  a  marsh. 

That  night  we  billeted  for  the  first  time  in 
German  territory.  Regimental  headquarters 
were  in  the  country  house  of  a  German  officer." 
On  the  news  of  our  advance  he  had  fled  farther 
north,  but,  with  the  characteristic  affectation 
of  his  class,  telephoned,  on  our  arrival,  saying 
he  regretted  that  he  would  not  be  there  to 
receive  us  and  hoped  that  we  would  be  com- 
fortable. Next  morning  he  telephoned  again, 
sending  a  message  to  the  effect  that  if  any  of 
his  servants  had  not  done  everything  for  our 
comfort  would  we  please  report  the  matter  to 
him  immediately  in  order  that  he  might  punish 
the  offender. 

All  the  next  day  we  moved  up  the  banks  of 
the  winding  Moselle  through  Treves,  where 
relics  of  the  old  Roman  buildings  frowned 
down  on  us  as  we  passed.  At  night  we  stopped 
in  another  German  house,  from  which  the 
German  officer  had  not  fled.  He  was  a  lieu- 
tenant colonel  and  had  waited  to  receive  us, 
prepared  to  be  butler  or  anything  we  demanded. 


^8  Average  Americans 

A  real  indication  of  the  character  of  the 
German  soldier  was  given  by  the  terror  of  the 
women  at  our  approach.  It  was  clear  that 
they  expected  any  outrage.  On  account  of 
this,  on  arriving  in  each  town,  when  I  woiild 
call  the  burgomaster  to  give  him  the  instruc- 
tions concerning  the  behavior  of  the  towns- 
people, I  would  finish  up  by  directing  him  to 
announce  to  all  women  and  children  that  they 
need  have  no  fear  concerning  the  actions  of 
any  American  soldier,  that  we  were  Americans, 
not  Germans.  I  had  my  interpreter  see  that 
it  was  given  out  in  this  form. 

Day  after  day  we  followed  the  river  or  made 
short  cuts  inland.  As  we  marched  along,  on 
hilltops  on  either  side,  silhouetted  against  the 
sky,  austere  and  dignified,  were  the  crumbling 
brown-rock  towers  of  medieval  castles.  These 
castles  were  destroyed  more  than  two  centu- 
ries before  by  Louis  XIV  as  he  marched  by 
the  same  route.  On  either  side  of  the  river 
the  slopes  rose  abruptly.  They  were  covered 
with  vineyards,  apparently  growing  from  the 
brown  shale.     Once,  when  we  passed  through 


Conquered  Germany  229 

the  city  of  Bemcastle,  in  the  early  morning, 
when  the  mist  choked  the  valley,  I  looked  up 
and  saw  on  the  peak  that  overhung  the  town, 
touched  by  the  morning  sun,  the  old  keep 
framed  in  the  white  mist  like  a  cameo  set  in 
mother-of-pearl.  Time  and  again  some  Hun 
farmer  would  stop  me  and  take  me  through  a 
cow-shed  to  see  the  marble  remains  of  some 
Roman  bath  or  villa,  the  name  of  whose  owner 
had  long  since  vanished  in  the  mists  of  time. 

An  odd  incident  of  this  march  occurred 
when  Lieutenant  Barrett  was  ordered  by  me 
to  go  and  instruct  a  German  soldier  we  were 
passing  concerning  certain  of  our  regulations. 
When  Barrett  reported  back,  he  told  me  the 
man  had  come  from  his  own  home  town  in 
Indiana. 

One  thing  that  struck  us  all  as  we  left  Prance 
and  reached  Germany  was  the  number  of  chil- 
dren. In  France  children  are  rare.  Each  com- 
munity you  passed  you  felt  was  composed  of 
grown  people.  In  Germany  the  streets  were 
full  of  them — healthy-looking  little  rascals, 
pink-cheeked  and  well-nourished,  wearing  di- 


230  Average  Americans 

minutive  gray-blue  uniforms  like  those  of  the 
German  soldier.  Little  machine  gunners,  the 
men  used  to  call  them,  for  they  looked  like 
so  many  small  replicas  of  those  men  we  had 
been  killing  and  who  had  killed  us.  Imme- 
diately upon  the  proclamation  going  out  that 
the  children  would  be  in  no  way  molested, 
these  little  rascals  swarmed  over  everything. 
Nothing  could  satisfy  their  curiosity. 

After  weaving  our  way  up  the  river  valley 
and  over  the  hills,  one  early  December  morn- 
ing we  found  ourselves  winding  down  from  the 
surrounding  hills  toward  the  Rhine.  As  we 
swung  around  a  rocky  comer,  the  whole 
panorama  lay  before  us — the  gables  and 
steeples  of  the  town  of  Boppard  with,  as  a 
background,  the  broad,  undisturbed  silver 
Rhine.  On  we  wound  down  the  rocky  slope 
into  the  city,  the  flag  flying  at  the  head  of  the 
column.  That  night  I  formed  the  entire  regi- 
ment in  line  on  the  terraced  water  front  facing 
the  river  and,  with  the  band  playing  The  Star- 
Spangled  Banner ,  stood  retreat. 

We  waited  here  a  day  and  then  marched 


Conquered  Germany  231 

down  the  river  to  Coblenz.  On  this  march 
we  passed  through  one  village,  with  old  gates, 
little  jutting  houses  carved  and  painted  in 
bright  colors,  unchanged  sixteenth-century 
Europe.  Next  was  another  village,  factory 
towers  smoking,  great  brick  buildings  filled 
with  machinery,  plain  little  board  houses  for 
the  workmen,  the  epitome  of  modernism. 

The  night  of  December  12th  we  billeted  at 
Coblenz.  Next  morning,  at  seven  o'clock, 
the  First  Division  in  two  columns  crossed  the 
Rhine,  the  first  of  the  American  troops.  As 
the  head  of  the  column  reached  the  center  of 
the  bridge  and  I  looked  at  massive  Ehrenbreit- 
stein  and  up  and  down  the  historic  river,  I 
felt  this  truly  marked  the  end  of  an  era. 

Two  days  more  brought  us  to  the  end 
of  the  bridgehead,  where  we  were  to  take 
up  our  position.  Division  headquarters  were 
in  quite  a  large  town  called  Montabaur,  a 
name  supposed  to  have  been  brought  back  with 
the  early  crusaders,  i.  e.,  Mount  Tabor.  Two 
castles  overlooked  the  town,  one  in  ruins,  the 
other  still  used  as  an  administrative  building 


2^2  Average  Americans 

by  the  town  authorities.  The  regiment  was 
scattered  through  the  surrounding  small 
country  villages. 

Quarters  for  the  men  were  good  in  compari- 
son with  what  they  had  been  used  to.  We 
were  able  to  get  washing  facilities,  food  came 
up  regularly,  and  now,  for  the  first  time,  proper 
equipment.  The  men  really  enjoyed  them- 
selves for  the  first  week  or  so.  We  had  no 
trouble  with  fraternization.  Our  men  had 
seen  too  many  of  their  friends  and  relations 
killed  to  care  to  have  anything  to  do  with 
their  late  enemies.  Like  true  Americans, 
they  played  with  the  children  and  flirted  with 
the  women  whenever  opportunity  offered,  but 
I  never  remember  seeing  any  attempt  to  be- 
come familiar  with  the  men. 

Now  that  the  work  of  fighting  was  over,  up- 
permost in  everyone's  mind  was  the  thought, 
"When  do  we  get  home?"  The  minuteman 
wanted  to  go  back  to  ordinary  life  and  his 
family.  Time  and  again  when  I  first  returned 
to  this  country  people  would  ask  me  what  I 
thought  the  soldiers  thought  of  this  or  that 


Conquered  Germany  233 

public  question.  I  always  replied  truthfully 
that  the  men  were  so  busy  thinking  about 
what  a  good  place  the  United  States  was,  how 
much  better  in  their  opinion  than  any  of  the 
European  countries  they  had  been  to,  that  all 
they  were  interested  in  was,  when  will  that 
transport  leave. 

In  January  I  was  ordered  to  Paris  on  sick 
leave.  Shortly  after,  I  sailed  for  home  on  the 
Mauretania  and  saw  the  mass  of  New  York 
lift  on  the  horizon,  where  my  three  children, 
who  had  practically  forgotten  me,  were  waiting. 
So  ends  the  active  participation  of  an  average 
American  with  average  Americans  in  the  war. 


CHAPTER  XII 

.     AFTERWARDS 

"  When  old  John  Bums,  a  practical  man, 
Shouldered  his  rifle,  unbent  his  brows, 
And  then  went  back  to  his  bees  and  cows." 

Bret  Harte. 

'T'HE  war  is  important  to  us  in  this  country 
for  what  it  accompHshed  directly:  name- 
ly, it  crushed  the  brutal  military  power  of  Ger- 
many, which  threatened  our  ideal  of  civiliza- 
tion. We  are,  however,  primarily  civilians, 
not  soldiers,  and  we  are  now  going' back  to 
our  ''jobs,*'  whatever  they  may  be.  For  this 
reason  I  consider  more  important  and  more 
far-reaching  than  the  military  victory  the  les- 
sons that  it  taught  us  and  the  effects  it  had 
on  our  citizens  who  participated.  We  must 
profit  by  these  lessons  and  preserve  the  im- 
pulses that  have  been  given  to  our  people.     If 

we  do  this  the  war  will  not  simply  be  history, 

234 


Afterwards  235 

a  past  issue,  a  good  job  well  finished;  it  will 
be  a  force  that  will  be  felt  in  this  country 
through  the  generations  to  come  for  right- 
eousness and  a  truer  Americanism. 

The  first  and  most  evident  lesson  taught 
us  was  the  effect  of  being  ill-prepared.  We 
permitted  in  the  past  a  policy  which  substi- 
tuted fine  words  for  fine  deeds,  the  pen  and 
the  voice  for  action.  We,  in  the  past,  con- 
tented ourselves  with  sounding  platitudes; 
we  allowed  our  sloth  to  approve  them  under 
the  misnomer  of  idealism.  We  allowed  our- 
selves to  be  switched  from  the  hard  realities 
by  glittering  phrases.  We  sowed  the  wind 
and  we  reaped  the  whirlwind.  As  a  result 
hundreds  of  millions  have  been  spent  to  no 
purpose  and  blood  has  been  shed  unnecessarily. 
Those  who  were  in  this  country  saw  daily  the 
evidences  of  inefficiency  and  the  coincident 
waste  of  the  public  moneys.  Those  who  went 
to  Europe  saw  blood  shed  unnecessarily 
through  lack  of  supplies,  inefficient  organiza- 
tion, and  untrained  leadership.  At  no  times 
did  our  equipment  compare  favorably  with 


236  Average  Americans 

that  of  either  of  our  major  Allies.  At  all  times 
in  Europe  we  were  to  a  greater  or  less  extent 
equipped  by  them. 

Much  as  we  are  to  blame  for  permitting 
these  conditions  to  arise  in  the  past,  we  will 
be  doubly  so  if  in  the  future  we  let  half-baked 
theorists  and  sinister  demagogues  lead  us 
again  into  a  like  neglect.  We  will  be  guilty 
of  bringing  down  upon  the  heads  of  our  chil- 
dren the  same  punishments  that  we  have  suf- 
fered. Indeed,  we  will  probably  bring  down 
more  upon  them,  as  we  by  pure  good  fortune  es- 
caped the  maximimi  penalties  that  were  due  us. 

It  was  our  good  fortune  that  we  were  per- 
mitted, under  the  sheltering  forces  of  the  Allies, 
slowly  to  prepare  ourselves  after  we  had  de- 
clared war,  until,  after  about  a  year,  we  were 
in  a  condition  which  enabled  us  to  join  in  the 
conflict.  Next  time  in  all  probability  there 
will  be  neither  England  nor  France  standing 
between  us  and  the  enemy  armies  and  giving 
us  nearly  a  year  leeway  before  we  have  to 
fight.  I  am  proud  to  be  an  American,  I  am 
proud  of  the  actions  of  the  citizens  of  the 


Afterwards  337 

country,  I  am  proud  to  be  a  citizen  of  a  coun- 
try which  has  fought  a  war,  not  with  the  aid 
of,  but  in  spite  of,  its  national  administration. 
My  pride  in  the  actions  of  the  rank  and  file 
of  the  country  is  offset  only  by  my  shame  at 
being  represented  in  the  world  by  the  present 
administration. 

As  is  usually  the  case,  those  who  are  respon- 
sible in  a  large  measure  for  conditions  have 
suffered  least.  The  average  American  man 
or  woman  has  borne  the  brunt  and  paid  the 
price.  Those  nearest  and  dearest  to  the  men 
mostly  responsible  have  been,  like  the  Kaiser's 
sons,  too  valuable  to  risk  near  the  battle.  A 
prominent  Socialist  deputy  of  France  who 
had  advocated  disarmament  went  with  the 
first  troops.  He  was  wounded,  and  when 
dying  said  he  was  thankful  it  had  been  per- 
mitted him  to  atone  with  his  life  for  his  errors 
in  the  past.  I  admire  a  man  of  that  type  of 
honesty  and  courage. 

Honor  where  honor  is  due.  Honor  to  the 
people  of  the  United  States  for  their  actions 
after  the  beginning  of  this  war. 


238  Average  Americans 

Blame  where  blame  is  due.  Blame  to  the 
citizens  of  the  United  States  for  their  easy 
indolence  which  permitted  them  to  support 
for  their  high  offices  men  who  neither  thought 
straight  nor  were  manly  enough  to  share  in 
the  penalties  for  their  mistakes. 

We  had  the  lesson  of  impreparedness  illus- 
trated so  that  we  all  can  understand  it.  We 
must  not  now  content  ourselves  with  admit- 
ting we  were  wrong.  That  does  not  get  us 
any  further  forward.  We  must  adopt  meas- 
ures to  see  that  it  does  not  occur  again.  The 
policy  that  I  believe  is  necessary  to  this  end 
is  compulsory  training.  This  is  not,  to  my 
mind,  simply  a  military  question.  It  is  an 
educational  question,  educational  in  the  broad- 
est sense  of  the  term.  The  question  of  most 
vital  importance  to  a  democracy,  and  for 
which  we  always  work,  is  to  create  equal  op- 
portunity for  every  man  and  woman;  to  raise 
in  every  way  possible  the  type  of  the  average 
citizen.  It  is  from  this  point  of  view  that  I 
believe  most  strongly  in  universal  training. 

We  have  adopted  in  this  war  the  policy  of 


Afterwards  239 

compulsory  military  service.  We  have  used 
it  as  a  military  war-time  measure.  To  get  the 
peace-time  economic  value  we  should  have  its 
complement,  compulsory  training  in  time  of 
peace.  One  of  the  obstacles  to  this,  in  the 
mind  of  the  average  citizen,  is  the  creation  of 
a  military  caste.  This  is  no  doubt  a  danger, 
and  a  real  danger,  but  it  is  not  an  insurmount- 
able danger.  In  France  and  in  Switzerland 
it  has  been  surmounted.  There  is  no  military 
caste  in  either  country.  There  is  no  desire 
for  war  among  the  citizens  of  these  countries. 
No  one  can  say  that  France  by  her  aggressive 
action  drove  Germany  to  the  war.  No  one 
can  say  that  on  account  of  military  training 
Switzerland  plunged  into  the  war.  The  first 
country  saved  herself  from  the  domination  of 
the  German  military  caste  by  compulsory 
training.  The  second  country  by  the  same 
means  saved  herself  entirely  from  war,  for 
unquestionably  Germany  chose  Belgium  to 
rape  on  account  of  her  defenselessness.  Both 
France  and  Switzerland  are  democracies,  real 
democracies  in  deed  and  thought. 


240  Average  Americans 

This  danger  of  fostering  a  military  caste, 
in  my  opinion,  can  be  met  by  a  proper  han- 
dling of  the  scheme.  The  whole  matter  of 
training  should  be  directly  under  the  control 
of  a  general  staff.  This  general  staff  should 
not  be  composed,  as  in  Germany,  simply  of 
military  men.  Military  training,  to  my  mind, 
is  only  a  part  of  the  training  necessary.  On 
the  general  staff  the  military  should  be  simply 
an  element.  In  addition  to  them  there  should 
be  prominent  educators,  representatives  of 
labor,  prominent  employers  of  labor,  repre- 
sentatives of  the  farming  interests,  and  mem- 
bers of  our  legislative  bodies,  the  House  and 
Senate.  Such  a  staff  would  prohibit  once  and 
for  all  the  question  of  a  military  caste.  Such 
a  staff  would  obtain  the  correct  balance  be- 
tween the  purely  military  and  the  obviously 
more  important  educational  side.  The  com- 
plicated adjustments  of  interests  would  be 
safeguarded.  The  economic  question  would 
be  properly  handled. 

Some  of  the  benefits  are  obvious.  First, 
when  the  country  is  called  upon  to  defend  it- 


THREE  THEODORE  ROOSEVELTS 

Copyright.  Walter  S.  Shinn 


Afterwards  241 

self,  competent,  trained  men  will  step  forward 
into  the  ranks.  Over  and  above  them  will  be 
a  mechanism  conserving  the  sacrifices,  mak- 
ing possible  the  just  reward  in  victory  of  gal- 
^  lantry  and  self-sacrifice.  Your  boy  will  go 
out  and  you  will  feel  that  what  can  be  done 
will  be  done.  You  go  yourself  and  you  know 
you  will  get  a  show  for  your  white  alley.  You 
don't  mind  sitting  into  a  game  where  there 
is  an  even  break,  but  you  hate  to  be  forced  to 
draw  cards  when  you  know  they  are  stacked 
against  you. 

Second,  the  physical  welfare  of  our  young 
men  would  be  immeasurably  helped.  Let  us 
face  the  cold  facts.  In  this  war  nearly  half 
of  the  men  of  military  age  were  refused  admis- 
sion to  the  service  for  physical  defects.  They 
were  below  par  from  the  standpoint  of  the 
physician.  Compulsory  training  should  be 
organized  in  such  a  way  as  to  pay  particular 
attention  to  just  this  feature.  No  man  would 
be  exempt  from  compulsory  training  on  ac- 
count of  physical  defects.  Special  organiza- 
tions should  be  created  to  handle  men  of  this 

x6 


242  Average  Americans 

kind.  Specialists  should  be  put  in  charge. 
These  specialists  year  after  year  would  devote 
their  entire  time  to  working  with  men  of  just 
this  kind  and  would  add  enormously  to  the 
country  economically  by  this  work. 

Third.  The  knowledge  of  sanitation  and 
simple  hygienic  rules,  to  be  concrete,  the  care 
of  teeth,  the  feet,  the  digestion,  and  a  thousand 
and  one  things  of  this  nature,  should  be  taught 
to  the  many  men  who  up  to  this  time  would 
have  had  no  opportunity  to  learn.  For  the 
person  who  lives  where  every  modern  con- 
venience surrounds  him  it  is  difficult  to  believe 
the  conditions  which  exist  in  sections  of  the 
country.  Let  him  go  to  the  poor  sections  of 
any  great  city,  let  him  go  to  the  mountain 
districts  of  Tennessee  or  of  North  Carolina. 
He  will  see  at  once  that  the  men  from  these 
districts  will  be  infinitely  benefited  by  this 
education. 

Fourth.  The  democratization  would  be 
very  beneficial  to  all  alike.  All  would  receive 
the  same  treatment,  and  all  classes,  all  grades 
in  society,  would  be  mixed.     The  educational 


Afterwards  243 

value  from  this  alone  would  be  very  great. 
Everyone  would  get  new  ideas,  a  broader 
outlook  on  life,  and  a  more  complete  under- 
standing of  this  country.  Our  public  schools 
do  not  embrace  all  classes  and  do  not  cover 
the  situation  as  generally  as  they  should.  It 
is  a  rare  thing  for  the  sons  of  the  wealthy  to 
go  to  the  public  schools.  Compulsory  training 
would  be  a  very  real  benefit  to  them. 

To  sum  up,  from  an  economic  standpoint 
alone,  compulsory  training  would  be  of  untold 
benefit.  The  economic  unit  of  the  community 
is  the  individual.  By  training  and  develop- 
ing the  individual  you  develop  the  economic 
assets.  The  small  loss  in  time  from  a  money- 
earning  aspect  would  be  ten  times  compen- 
sated by  the  increased  efficiency  after  training. 
From  a  moral  standpoint  the  individual  would 
be  broadened  by  contact,  trained  in  funda- 
mentals and  self -discipline,  and  have  one  of  the 
surest  foundations  of  clean  thought  and  clean 
action,  a  healthy  body.  So  much  for  the 
lesson  of  unpreparedness  and  what  I  believe 
we  should  do  to  remedy  it. 


244  Average  Americans 

One  of  the  first  effects  on  the  men  who 
served  was  democratization.  By  the  draft 
call  all  classes  and  grades  of  society  were 
drawn  into  the  service.  After  reaching  the 
service,  in  so  far  as  possible  they  were  ad- 
vanced into  positions  of  responsibility  without 
fear  or  favor.  The  effort  was  directed  toward 
finding  the  men  most  suited  for  the  individual 
job.  The  result  was,  in  most  instances,  as 
close  a  reproduction  of  a  real  democracy  as 
is  possible. 

In  my  regiment  there  were  many  instances 
of  this  fact.  One  of  my  lieutenants,  a  gallant 
young  fellow,  was  a  waiter  in  civilian  life,  a 
captain  was  a  chauffeur.  On  the  other  hand, 
many  men  serving  in  the  ranks  came  from 
professions  ranking  high  in  the  scale  in  civilian 
life. 

A  lieutenant  once  spoke  to  me  after  an 
action  saying  that  when  he  was  leading  his 
platoon  back  from  the  battle  one  of  his  pri- 
vates asked  him  a  question.  The  question 
was  so  intelligent  and  so  well  thought  out 
that  the  lieutenant  said  to  him:  ''What  were 


Afterwards  245 

you  before  the  war?''  The  reply  was,  ''City 
editor  of  the  Cleveland  Plain  Dealer.'' 

Another  private,  serving  as  a  runner  in  one 
of  the  company  headquarters,  was  an  ex-state 
senator  from  the  State  of  Washington.  These 
are  isolated  instances  of  what  was  taking  place 
the  army  over — the  waiter  and  chauffeur  as 
officers  and  the  lawyer  and  newspaper  editor 
as  privates.  Ability  to  take  responsibility 
in  the  present,  not  previous  conditions,  was 
what  they  were  judged  by.  Surely  associa- 
tions of  this  sort  will  breed  sympathy  and 
understanding  for  the  future.  Surely  these 
will  aid  the  country  to  approach  its  problems 
without  class  bias. 

Another  effect  was  the  idea  of  service  to 
the  country.  To  most  of  us,  up  to  the  time 
of  the  war,  the  country  was  a  rather  indefinite 
affair  which  had  done  something  for  us  and 
which  we  expected  to  do  more  for  us  in  the 
future.  We  had  given  but  little  thought  to 
what  we  should  do  for  the  country.  During 
the  war  every  man  in  the  service  did  some- 
thing for  his  coimtry.    He  now  is  in  the  posi- 


246  Average  Americans 

tion  of  a  man  who  has  bought  a  share  of  stock 
in  a  company.  He  is  interested  in  seeing  the 
country  run  right  and  is  wiUing  to  give  more 
service.  The  idea  that  we  must  endeavor  to 
approach  in  the  United  States  is  to  create  a 
condition  where  as  close  to  our  entire  popula- 
tion as  possible  has  a  vested  interest  in  the 
country.  In  a  certain  way  this  has  been 
supplied  to  the  service  men  by  what  they 
have  done  for  the  country. 

The  most  important  effect,  to  my  minji, 
was  the  Americanization.  Those  who  served 
became  straight  Americans,  one  hundred  per 
cent.  Americans  and  nothing  else. 

The  regiment  was  composed  of  as  good  a 
cross  section  of  the  United  States  as  you  could 
get.  The  men  came  from  all  sections  of  the 
country  and  from  all  walks  of  life. 

Selected  at  random  from  men  who  one  time 
or  another  served  at  my  headquarters  are  the 
following:  Sergeants  Braun,  Schultz,  Cramer, 
and  Corporal  Schwarz  were  bom  and  edu- 
cated in  Germany,  and  no  gallanter  or  better 
Americans   fought    in   our    army.     Sergeant 


Afterwards  247 

Braun  was  awarded  the  Distinguished  Service 
Cross.     Corporal  Schwarz  gave  his  life. 

Sergeant  Samari  and  Privates  Belacca, 
Kalava,  and  Rano  were  bom  in  Italy.  Samari 
particularly  distinguished  himself  by  his  gal- 
lantry, although  all  were  gallant. 

The  Sergeants  Murphy,  mainstays  of  their 
particular  organizations ;  Hennessy ,  of  gallant 
memory ;  Leonard,  Magee,  and  O'Rourke  were, 
I  believe,  bom  in  Ireland.  All  of  the  men 
reflected  credit  on  this,  their  country. 

Sergeant  Hansrodoc,  born  in  Greece,  was 
promoted  from  private  and  served  from  be- 
ginning to  end. 

Sergeants  Masonis,  Crapahousky,  and 
Zablimisky  were  bom  in  Poland. 

Sergeant  Mosleson  and  Privates  Brenner 
and  Drabkin  were  of  Jewish  extraction.  One 
of  them  is  dead;  each  of  the  others  has  been 
twice  wounded. 

Sergeants  Major  Lamb  and  Sneaton  and 
Corporals  Brown  and  Glover  were  of  straight 
English  extraction.  Corporal  Le  Boeuf  is  of 
French-Canadian  extraction.     These  are  only 


248  Average  Americans 

some  of  the  names  that  occur  to  me.  In  the 
regiment  at  large  the  range  was  greater. 

All  of  these  men  were  straight  Americans 
and  nothing  else.  All  of  these  men  thought 
of  themselves  as  Americans.  Once  I  heard  one 
of  the  men  in  conversation  outside  my  head- 
quarters. He  had  been  bom  in  a  foreign 
country.  He  didn't  like  the  way  that  country 
was  doing  in  the  war.  He  alluded  to  the  citi- 
zens of  that  country,  the  country  of  his  birth, 
as  ''them  cold-footed  rascals.*'  It  never 
even  occtirred  to  him  that  there  was  anything 
fimny  in  this.  He  thought  of  himself  as  an 
American,  the  men  to  whom  he  was  talking 
thought  of  him  as  an  American. 

An  excellent  soldier  bom  in  Germany  was 
brought  back  to  me  one  day  as  we  were  ad- 
vancing into  the  lines.  The  officer  in  charge 
reported  that  the  man  had  been  caught  talk- 
ing to  German  prisoners,  which  was  something 
strictly  forbidden.  He  appeared  before  me. 
I  knew  him  to  be  a  good  sort  and  said  to  him, 
**What  is  the  matter,  how  did  this  come 
about?"     He  said,  ''Well,  sir,  I  know  I  should 


Afterwards  349 

not  have  done  it  and  I  won't  do  it  again,  but 
I  suddenly  saw  in  that  batch  of  prisoners  some- 
one from  the  town  where  I  was  bom."  This 
man  was  killed  in  action  shortly  afterward 
fighting  for  this  country. 

I  have  been  told  of  a  leave  train  sent  to 
Italy  with  American  soldiers  bom  in  Italy  on 
it  in  order  that  they  might  see  their  people. 
Doubt  was  expressed  in  the  minds  of  the 
higher  command  as  to  whether  it  was  an  advis- 
able move,  inasmuch  as  it  was  thought  prob- 
able that  many  of  the  men  would  overstay 
their  leave  or  possibly  try  to  desert  and  stay 
there.  Not  one  man  out  of  the  1200  did 
either.  An  officer  who  talked  with  these  men 
on  their  return  said  that  conversations  ran 
much  like  this:  ''Cipiloni,  have  a  fine  time  on 
your  leave  ?  "  "  Yes,  sir. '  *  ' '  See  your  family  ? ' ' 
'^Yes,  sir.''  "Get  back  in  time  all  right?" 
**  Yes,  sir,  got  back  to  the  train  fourteen  hours 
before  it  left,  sir.  I  was  afraid,  sir,  if  I  missed 
this  train,  I  might  get  left  behind  when  the 
division  started  for  home." 

When  replacements  came  to  us,  some  of 


250  Average  Americans 

them  could  not  even  speak  English.  After 
they  had  been  with  the  troops  two  or  three 
months  the  same  men  would  not  only  be 
speaking  English,  but  would  speak  it  by 
preference.  I  have  seen  two  Italians,  bom 
in  the  same  district  in  Italy,  laboriously  con- 
versing with  one  another  in  English  rather 
than  use  the  tongue  to  which  they  were  bom, 
with  which  they  were  naturally  much  more 
familiar. 

From  these  and  many  other  reasons,  the 
army  is  the  least  of  this  country's  fears  as  far 
as  Bolshevism  and  its  kindred  anarchies  are 
concerned.  All  over  the  country  you  will 
find  the  service  men  keen  to  put  down  demon- 
strations of  this  sort.  They  are  keen  of  their 
own  accord,  not  prompted  by  anyone.  The 
other  day  I  was  in  a  city  where  a  Bolshevist 
meeting  had  been  broken  up  by  some  service 
men.  I  knew  one  of  the  men  who  was  con- 
cerned in  this.  I  asked  him  how  it  occurred. 
He  said.  **Why,  sir,  it  was  this  way.  I  was 
talking  to  some  of  the  fellows  down  at  the 
W.  C.  C.  S.  and  a  guy  says  to  us,  *  They've 


Afterwards  251 

got  a  red-flag  meeting  on  for  to-night.*  I  said 
to  some  of  the  men,  *That  ain't  the  flag  we 
know  anything  about,  or  fought  for.  Let's 
go  down  and  bust  them  birds  up.'" 

The  service  man  feels  that  this  is  his  coun- 
try. His  first  and  foremost  concern  is  for 
the  United  States.  He  wants  the  institutions 
of  this  country  to  stand.  He  has  given  him- 
self, and  where  one  has  given  of  one's  self  the 
interest  is  deepest.  He  has  bought  a  share 
of  stock  of  the  United  States.  As  a  stock- 
holder he  intends  to  do  what  he  can  to  see 
that  the  concern  is  run  properly. 

In  order  to  keep  alive  and  active  this  spirit 
of  sttirdy  loyalty,  a  vested  interest  of  some 
type  obtained  by  his  own  labor  should  be 
aimed  at  for  every  one  of  as  many  citizens  as 
possible.  This  country  will  have  to  move 
forward  with  a  program  of  sane,  constructive, 
carefully  thought-out  liberalism. 

It  may  be  necessary  in  doing  this  to  modify 
or  change  certain  things  in  this  community 
in  the  future,  but  the  service  man,  I  believe, 
intends,  as  far  as  he  is  able,  to  see  that  those 


252  Average  Americans 

changes  and  modifications  are  carried  out  in 
such  a  way  as  will  not  destroy  or  injure  the 
national  fabric  and  institutions. 

Again,  first,  last,  and  always,  the  service 
man  is  an  American! 


THE  END 


M  Selection  from  the 
Catalogue  of 

C.  P.  PUTNAM'S  SONS 


Compl«t«  Catalof(ue8  ••&! 
oxt  application 


"Wade  in,  Sanitary!" 

The  Story  of  a  Division  Surgeon 
in    France 


By 
Richard  Derby 

Lt.-Col.  M.  C,  n.  S.  A.,  Division  Surgeon,  Second  Division 

This  is  a  surgeon's  story  of  the  war— 
of  that  life  and  death  humanly  dramatic 
portion  of  the  war  in  which  the  doctors 
in  khaki  played  their  great  part. 

The  book  is  far  more  than  a  mere  ac- 
count of  war  experiences.  It  is  the  first 
complete  and  authoritative  picture  of  the 
struggle  from  the  surgeon's  side.  Though 
non-technical  in  style  and  thoroughly 
popular,  it  points  out  many  of  the  lessons 
of  the  war  from  the  medical  standpoint 
of  interest  to  every  physician  and  every 
thinking  citizen. 

To  after  the  war  literature  the  book  is 
a  highly  valuable  addition  of  absorbing 
interest. 


The  Yankee  in  the 
British  Zone 

By 

Captain  Ewen  C.  MacVeagh 

and 

Lieutenant  Lee  D.  Brown 

How  did  Tommy  Atkins  and  the  Yank 
get  on?  How  did  they  impress  each 
other?  What  did  they  leam  about  each 
other? 

That  is  what  this  book  answers.  It  is 
not  a  war  book ;  it  is  rather  a  study  in 
the  psychology  of  the  average  man,  Brit- 
ish and  American;  and  it  is  the  first 
intimate  story  of  the  Anglo-American 
relations. 

Written  by  two  trained  observers  it 
sets  forth  a  wealth  of  anecdotes,  many 
grotesquely  funny,  and  illustrative  "hu- 
man interest''  stories  and  incidents. 


"I  WAS  THERE" 

WITH  THE  YANKS 
IN  FRANCE 


By 

C.  Lre  Roy  Baldrid^e 

300  sketches  made  on  the  spot  while 
the  author  was  a  camion  driver  with  the 
French  Army,  and  later  after  he  had 
joined  the  A.  E.  F.  He  was  also  the 
oflBcial  artist  of  The  Stars  and  Stripes. 
**Not  the  least  of  the  paper's  achieve- 
ments," says  the  N.  Y.  Eve.  Post,  **is 
the  repute  it  won  for  an  excellent  artist 
—Mr.  Baldridge." 


G.  P.  PUTNAM'S  SONS 

New  York  London 


The   Story 

of   the 

American   Legion 


By 
Lieut.  George  S.  Wheat 

12°.     13  Illustrations 

First  of  a  most  important  series,  which 
will  contain  from  year  to  year  a  complete 
record  of  the  "G.  A.  R.  of  the  Great 
War."  This  first  volume  treats  fixlly  of 
the  original  formation  of  an  organization 
that  is  potentially  the  most  far-reaching 
influence  in  America  to-day. 

G.  P.  Putnam's  Sons 

New  York  London 


DIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA  LIBRARY 
BERKELEY 

Return  to  desk  from  -which  borrowed. 
This  book  is  DUE  on  the  last  date  stamped  below. 


OAN    29  1948 

l70cf5ifLU 

PE818I987  76 
RECEIVED 

''EB10'67-2FM 

LOAN  DEPT. 
IN  STAClp 

_    aareto 

JUL    6 1973  6 

LD  21-100m-9,'47(A5702sl6)476 


•■73-3PM    7 


UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA  UBRARY 


Ainj 


